On April 20th, BHER CEO Valerie Walker, and Chief R&D Officer Matthew McKean, will be participating in the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Future of Business Summit. The summit brings together business leaders, policymakers, and innovators from across Canada to explore the trends shaping the country’s economic future.
Canada is in the midst of a historic transformation. The labour market is experiencing sustained pressure from skills shortages, supply chain disruptions, the rapid adoption of AI, and tariffs, among other factors. An aging population, declining birth rates, and shifting immigration levels are reshaping the labour force. These shifts are not abstract trends — they are defining the economy and operating environment of the next decade.
BHER’s session, Running Out of Workers: An Action Plan for Canada’s Next Economy, will examine learnings from our Executive Summit and what it will take to unlock Canada’s next phase of economic growth and strategic capacity.
On April 21st, BHER Director, Strategic Partnerships & Development Andrew Bieler will be leading the workshop From Talent Shortages to Talent Pipelines: How WIL Drives Productivity in the Age of AI. In this session, the Business + Higher Education Roundtable (BHER) will share how its national work-integrated learning (WIL) program is helping employers access job-ready talent, test new capabilities, and build future-ready teams. Through real-world examples and emerging trends, we’ll explore how leading organizations are using WIL to respond to AI and workforce disruption.