On April 20-21 BHER CEO Valerie Walker, Chief R&D Officer Matthew McKean, and Director, Strategic Partnerships & Development Andrew Bieler participated in the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Future of Business Summit. The summit brought 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 under sustained pressure from skills shortages, supply chain disruptions, the adoption of AI, and tariffs, among other factors. At the same time, an aging population, declining birth rates, and shifting immigration levels are reshaping the workforce. These shifts are not abstract trends: they’re 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, examined insights from our Executive Summit and what it will take to unlock Canada’s next phase of economic growth and strategic capacity. Alongside reporter and writer John Ibbitson, Valerie Walker and Matthew McKean emphasized that stronger cross-sector collaboration will be critical to move from ideas to coordinated action, at speed and at scale.
On April 21, Andrew Bieler led the workshop From Talent Shortages to Talent Pipelines: How WIL Drives Productivity in the Age of AI. In this session, we shared how our national work-integrated learning (WIL) program is helping employers access job-ready talent, test new capabilities, and build future-ready teams. Andrew shared real-world examples and emerging trends with audience members and together they explored how leading organizations are using WIL to respond to AI and workforce disruption.
The Future of Business Summit reinforced the critical role BHER plays in leading the conversation on skills, talent, productivity, and innovation with our members and partners across the country. We will continue to build capacity and drive change in Canada’s skills and talent ecosystems, especially work-integrated learning, to help businesses navigate the future of work.