Federal experts found the likelihood of a ‘doomsday’ scenario where automation eliminates half of Canadian jobs to be ‘overstated’
OTTAWA — Newly released documents show that top government officials believe there is no imminent threat that artificial intelligence and robots will displace large segments of the Canadian workforce.
In a separate briefing, officials were told ahead of summer that 11 per cent of jobs in Canada could be automated over the next 15 to 20 years, and a further 29 per cent are “likely to change significantly.” The work was part of a series of exercises officials have run to see how well “social safety net” programs respond to the most dire of potential outcomes caused by technological shifts in the workforce.
Officials also wrote that other trends not measured in the report will shape the future of work, such as the transition to a low-carbon economy and increasing numbers of LGBTQ2 workers. A recent report by the Brookfield Institute came to a similar conclusion, and recommended governments create “a wide variety of accessible programming designed to teach Canadians general workforce digital skills … along with general soft skills.”
Sunil Johal, chair of the panel, said a key message from the report is that labour rules and regulations need to be frequently reviewed as more shifts are felt in the workforce. He said there is also a need to make regulations more nimble. That might mean creating what Johal described as “outcomes-based regulations” to address shifts in the labour market to spell out what the government expects but allow businesses to determine the means to that end.
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