You can also find the summary report for this challenge here. Download the full conference summary report here.
Canada at 150: Rising to the Challenge is about the future. Michael Ignatieff is inviting leading thinkers and doers from across Canada and around the world to grapple with what kind of country Canada can and should be when we mark our 150th birthday in 2017, and what must be done today to get there. The objective is not to advance simple solutions, or short term tactics. Rather, the conference will start a national dialogue about the big issues that will determine the future well being of Canadian families, individuals and communities.
What will Canada be in 2017? Over the past decade, the combination of two significant factors has had profound impacts on Canadian society: the digital economy and Canada’s maturing multiculturalism. Canada is changing, becoming more cosmopolitan, ethnically diverse, and outward looking. Through new technology, Canadians are becoming more connected to the issues, the art and cultures of the world. And as Canada welcomes new immigrant families, new cultural ties, new foods, new festivals, new music, these influences continue to sew themselves into the uniquely multicultural Canadian identity.
Both evolving technology and our growing multiculturalism, speak of Canada’s deepening connectivity to the world. In this evolution, how can we define our pluralistic Canadian culture, and what will be the institutions that define this culture? How will we communicate? How will we interact? What will be the ideas and ties that bind us as a pe
You can also find the summary report for this challenge here. Download the full conference summary report here.
Canada at 150: Rising to the Challenge is about the future. Michael Ignatieff is inviting leading thinkers and doers from across Canada and around the world to grapple with what kind of country Canada can and should be when we mark our 150th birthday in 2017, and what must be done today to get there. The objective is not to advance simple solutions, or short term tactics. Rather, the conference will start a national dialogue about the big issues that will determine the future well being of Canadian families, individuals and communities.
What will Canada be in 2017? Over the past decade, the combination of two significant factors has had profound impacts on Canadian society: the digital economy and Canada’s maturing multiculturalism. Canada is changing, becoming more cosmopolitan, ethnically diverse, and outward looking. Through new technology, Canadians are becoming more connected to the issues, the art and cultures of the world. And as Canada welcomes new immigrant families, new cultural ties, new foods, new festivals, new music, these influences continue to sew themselves into the uniquely multicultural Canadian identity.
Both evolving technology and our growing multiculturalism, speak of Canada’s deepening connectivity to the world. In this evolution, how can we define our pluralistic Canadian culture, and what will be the institutions that define this culture? How will we communicate? How will we interact? What will be the ideas and ties that bind us as a people?
In any such discussion, the digital economy must play a central role. Computing power and technology memory capacity have doubled every 18 months for the last 40 years. This has had tremendous impact on our daily lives, allowing people to become more interconnected than ever before. The last decade has seen the advent of Facebook, YouTube and Canadians are hosting video conferences with people around the world for free with technologies like Skype. Whereas ten years ago cellular phones were emerging consumer technologies, Canadians today can now live-stream television shows to their iPhone. As a result of technology, the interactions that define our unique Canadian culture, the nature of our jobs, our broadcasting institutions, our entertainment and communications are all undergoing constant transformation.
In the face of this rapid change, several key challenges need to be tackled. Canadians do not have equal access to this new digital world. The digital revolution is leaving behind low-income Canadians as well as Canadians in rural and remote communities who do not have access to modern high-speed connectivity.
In 2001, Canada ranked second in the world in broadband connectivity but has since fallen to 10th in 2008. Countries like the UK and Australia are laying down the foundations to build their nations as leaders in the digital economy, developing new fibre connectivity, next generation wireless systems and making a commitment to 100 percent connectivity. Looking forward to 2017, what must Canada do to ensure the digital economy is an opportunity for all Canadians?
Further, while connectivity is the highway, the real drivers of the digital economy are ideas and the artists, creators and innovators that generate them. In the emerging global economy scholars such as Dr. Martha Piper have outlined how companies choose to locate their offices in certain communities, not because of tax breaks, but primarily because these communities have populations of creative people upon which to draw. As but one example, Microsoft Canada recently located a new development centre in Vancouver for two reasons: Canada’s progressive immigration system and a culturally diverse community that attracts the highly skilled and creative workforce that it needs to be successful.
In this perspective, what is a Canadian vision for arts communities? Our cultural communities are major economic drivers in our economy. According to a 2007 Conference Board of Canada study, culture in Canada generates more than $80 billion in direct and indirect economic benefits every year, or more than 7 percent of total gross domestic product, with 1.1 million jobs across the country.
But culture is much more than another sector of the economy. Our artists, film-makers and musicians – who define our Canadian essence – are now bringing the heart of Canada to listeners and readers in distant nations. On the other hand, Canadians are linking more and more to the ideas and cultures from outside of our borders. How do we ensure Canada does not disappear in the new global melting pot? How do we strengthen and drive the creation of vibrant Canadian arts communities? How do we drive Canadian leadership in new media? What is the role of Canadian content rules in an internet age, and what is the fate of our local papers, our local television stations, our public institutions like the CBC and Radio-Canada, and our private broadcasters? How do we ensure artists are rewarded for their work in the new digital age?
How can Canada continue to strengthen our unique multiculturalism? Canada’s vibrant multiculturalism is and will be a tremendous strength and in an increasingly connected world we must maximize the opportunity. How do we improve our immigrations systems, our tools to help new Canadians participate to their full potential in our workforce? Additionally, how do we fully link our thriving multiculturalism to new markets and new economic opportunity?
Canada has enormous potential in the rapidly evolving, digital world of tomorrow. We should all be looking ahead and working together to realize that potential. The Canada at 150 Conference is asking Canadians what we must do to build thriving communities in the creative economy of the 21st century.
There must come a day when the internet is split apart into different categories so that the interaction by the general population be allowed to mature to its maximum Potential. Right now it is attempting to be all things to all people. Social nets, Entertainment nets, Art, there are no limits to the business models that can be created if we take control of the internet and deliver content in a controlled fashion that appeals to all segments of society.
I`m not suggesting that we do away with the internet in its current form (perhaps offering that along side) but that we take into consideration that there are certain controls that need to be put into place to ensure content and protect thing like copyrights.The internet is a reflection of society and seeing that the population is mostly law abiding and orderly then so too should the internet be. The world is a melting pot and there are no guarantees that any country will look any different from any other in 200 years.Eugenics as it relates to nationhood is not practical. The only thing to differentiate Canada from the rest will be currency and nationality.If we give the tools and the places to people to put their content we level the field by leaving no one out.
The Ideal situation would be a completely free internet or one where the market is so saturated with competition that it is virtually free. This way no one is left behind and everyone can market anything about themselves that they choose. This can be one way Canada differentiates itself from the rest of the world but we have to take the lead and take it early. The government must step in and take control to ensure a brighter future. Let there be an Internet and an Enternet. Lets enter the future.
The debate about access to the Internet and any possible limitations on what information or powers it makes available to anyone with a computer touches upon one of the key issues we as Canadians will have to face in the future: the tension that exists between the desire to allow personal freedoms and a natural fear of harmful behaviour by a relative few. This is not a new issue — it is as old as law-making humanity — but given the relatively widespread harm that individuals can now do, due to the power of technology, society as a whole may have to accept more limitations to personal freedom than we have enjoyed in the past. Countries such as the Republic of Singapore, where social order and prosperity are high priorities, have already adapted forms of democracy that Canadians would find worrying, but which their populations accept as the price of security and social harmony. It must be remembered that all so-called “human rights” only exist within societies (the lone hunter in the Arctic has no rights when he encounters a polar bear), and it is up to societies to determine which rights shall be respected, and to what degree. A nationwide dialogue about this issue, and (it is hoped) a resulting consensus on such issues as gun ownership, electronic surveillance, and the Internet would be a positive beginning to Canada’s voyage into the future.
Well, no matter what type of job someone can be paid to do, whether it capitalizes on and celebrates their historical culture or involves groundbreaking new computer technology, there has to be enough employment for them. That is, there has to be as little unemployment as possible. To ensure this, how about Canadian government uses ideas like John Kenneth Galbraith put forward back in the 1970s. He put forward something like this: an unfettered market will control inflation with unemployment, but this hurts those who are least employable (well educated new immigrants included). Instead, if the government caps wages and salaries for blue and white collar jobs, as well as tax the rich harder, then inflation and unemployment are minimized at the same time. Interestingly, he points out that the rich will grumble because they are oversensitive to injustice, but that their grumbling comforts the poor and even brings out some feeling of pity for the rich. This policy could close the gap between rich and poor over time and foster greater social cohesion.
I am sorry I cannot say more about the arts and computer technology, but they do seem to be a great part of our culture. Maybe we should figure out how to afford events like the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies for every Canada Day so that we can see the evolving meaning of being Canadian. Does anyone else think that we need to get past the mounties, hockey and beavers to include multiculturalism?
We need the same political will that used the railway to bind the artificial regions of this country together 150 years ago and do the same with advanced communications policy – whether it be internet or whatever medium will be used in the future. It may be tiered but there needs to be serious subsidization if necessary so that all regions have fundamental access to each other. This is the only way to break down the regionalization of the country and the antiquated Centrist attitudes that continue here. We are too small a population to squander the creative minds from any corner of the land because they feel that they exist in an outpost and have no access to the centre of the country, and Ottawa has to look back out and see that most all of the answers and resources can be found right within our vast borders.
The key to making wage and salary caps work is price capping to go with it. Right?
In 2017 Canada should be a strong country with a lot of job opportunities and more jobs created and a minimum wage system for all industry across the entire country. School fees should be much cheaper and not going up and up every year which students will never pay it off when they graduate. The prices of our food and grocery should have a stable price system and not going up every year or a few years. A long time ago a jug of milk is only 99 cents and now it’s like 3 – 5 dollars. Other things can go up in prices but food should have a system because we all need it and we all buy it everyday, week, months and is the most important thing in life. Some people can’t even afford to buy the healthy foods we need to eat because of the high prices in food and people do need a minimum wage system across the entire country. Some companies pay under minimum wage even if the law requires them to pay a minimum wage. They are all by passing the law system because of our Canadian government. There is lots to be done in Canada starting right now if you care about the younger generation.
Prompted by CBC being excluded from the fee-for-carriage negotiations with cable and satellite companies I recently wrote to the CRTC on one possible future for the CBC. Given that the Broadcast Act stipulates that the CBC must always be accessible to Canadians, why not require cable and satellite companies to provide that signal free of charge to all Canadians in their service areas? This would assure service to low-income Canadians and those living in smaller urban centres not directly served by CBC transmitters with a reliable over-the-air signal.
Ideally this service would not require the consumer to buy any other service or channel package from the signal resellers. It would be free, and mandated by law just as the community cable channels were back in the 1970’s. A less attractive option would be to allow a token fee which would be split between the signal resellers and the CBC.
The CBC is an important informational, cultural and entertainment provider and a source of national unity and identity. The corporations who control our airwaves gain a huge benefit from their ability to resell CBC signals without compensation—a benefit subsidized by all Canadians through our tax dollars. The media giants can well afford to give back to the citizens of Canada something we have already paid for.
Canada will be positioned to thrive in the coming years with a highly skilled workforce- why not pay for the post-secondary education for any Canadian high school graduate who is willing and interested in attending like Scotland and other countries do. We will recoup the costs in so many ways: taxes, health, knowledge and potential realized.
Well said Marcus! The Liberal party has to do better with regard to society’s most vulnerable, who are low income so are not able to save for retirement, let alone buy healthy foods. Money must be found to enable poor people to eat healthfully and live comfortably in their retirement, not only when the economy is growing.