Alberta, it’s time to invest in the knowledge economy

By Bronte Valk, CCI’s Alberta Manager of Government Affairs

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Crude oil prices have been surging in the past few months. Alberta’s GDP is expected to rise by 5.1%, and with lower unemployment numbers, we may see a balanced budget for 2022.

After a few rough years, the current situation in Alberta is cause for a lot more optimism.

But it’s also a reminder that as long as the government is relying on traditional economic drivers, we’re in for a continued boom-and-bust cycle. Moreover, if Alberta continues on its current path, we will be left behind in the global innovation race and fail to reap the long-term wealth benefits generated by the 21st century knowledge economy.

Alberta’s tech sector is growing rapidly, and high-growth companies are ready to be the prosperity engines for a new kind of digital economy. As such, innovators need this year’s provincial budget to be focused on building a policy infrastructure required to help them succeed.

This may also be the last budget before next year’s spring election. Alberta’s tech sector hopes to see action on talent and marketplace frameworks so Alberta’s economy can transition before it’s too late. Time is ticking for the government in power, and it is time for our province to act.

I want to highlight three big things in [CCI’s 2022 pre-budget submission](https://www.dropbox.com/s/a1j0yysc6zo6krc/2022 Pre-Budget Submission.pdf?dl=0) to the Alberta government, drafted in consultation with our Alberta members, that would create the conditions for a sustainable innovation economy.

Talent

Earlier this week I was talking to Ash Esmaili, CEO of Aimsio, a Calgary company that builds software for the energy and heavy construction industry. “It’s easier to find customers than it is to find talent,” Ash told me. This is a sentiment we hear from a lot of our members these days. They’re growing fast, but they can’t find enough skilled professionals to support that growth.

The war for talent in the tech sector is right now at its boiling point. Alberta’s unemployment rate in information and communications technology is hovering around 0.1%, and with ICTC forecasting the demand for core digitally skilled roles in Alberta to reach nearly 9,000 positions by 2023, increasing access to talent should be the government’s top focus.

Local high-growth companies have taken to creating their own upskilling and retraining programs to address the talent shortages they are facing in the ecosystem. These programs, like AltaML’s Applied AI Lab, are geared towards labour market needs and are offering on-the-job training to participants. The government should be supporting and incentivizing these programs as they augment the supply of talent from our post-secondary institutions, but also demonstrate private-sector leadership in the fight to grow a skilled talent pool in Alberta.

Data

Data is the 21st century’s most valuable resource, but in 2022, Alberta still lacks a strategy to harness the power of the data-driven economy

As CCI’s chair, Jim Balsillie, has said, “Data is not the new oil — it’s the new plutonium. Amazingly powerful, dangerous when it spreads, difficult to clean up and with serious consequences when improperly used.”

In the last year CCI’s members worked closely with the Alberta government on the development of a provincial data strategy. In the upcoming budget, we’re hoping to see a plan that helps domestic companies harness the power of data as an economic asset, while also considering and addressing the non-economic aspects of data such as privacy, public safety, health, and democracy.

With Ontario’s data strategy released last year and BC racing to come out with their own, Alberta’s innovators are keen on seeing the release and implementation of a data strategy in 2022.

IP

Intellectual property doesn’t get a lot of airtime, but it should.

Intangible assets make up more than 91% of the S&P500’s total value, and the world’s most successful companies are driven by intellectual property like patents, copyrights and trademarks.

Given the amount of wealth that IP can create, the government should do a better job of educating and incentivizing both domestic companies and publicly-funded innovation agencies to generate IP and keep it in Alberta.

In Budget 2022, innovators are hoping to see an ambitious intellectual property framework that includes recommendations from the Alberta 2030 report, like establishing a centralized IP entity in the province to provide IP education and support to those in the innovation community.

These are just a few of the measures we’ll be looking for when Alberta’s 2022 budget is tabled on February 24.

Join me the morning after for a conversation about the budget with Doug Schweitzer, Alberta’s Minister of Jobs, Economy and Innovation. We’ll discuss what was — and wasn’t — in the budget, and what innovators can expect from their government over the next twelve months. Register here: http://bit.ly/AlbertaBudget22.

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Bronte Valk is CCI’s Manager of Government Affairs for Alberta and can be reached at bvalk@canadianinnovators.org

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