CCI Statement on the Ontario NDP Platform

Today, Alanna Sokic, CCI’s Manager of Government Affairs for Ontario, issued the following statement in response to the Ontario NDP platform:

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“Talent is the jet fuel of the digital economy, and the NDP plan includes several tangible measures to help domestic firms compete in the global war for talent. In our recent [Talent & Skills Strategy](https://www.dropbox.com/s/rtaul2s0swmnqbu/CCI Talent & Skills Strategy 2022.pdf?dl=0) , CCI called on provincial governments to enhance linkages between post-secondary institutions and the private sector to create self-sustaining talent pipelines that ensure graduates consider Canadian companies at the outset of their careers.

The NDP’s plan to create thousands of new, paid internships; double Ontario’s Career Ready Program to create more opportunities for work-integrated learning; and overhaul Ontario’s post-secondary funding system, will do well to develop and deploy high-skilled talent into the labour force. We also welcome the NDP’s plan to leverage strategic procurement as an economic driver of Ontario firms.

Though the platform includes specific measures to increase access to talent and strategic procurement, we want to hear more from the NDP about their plans to address privacy, intellectual property, and issues related to the data-driven economy. Homegrown Canadian technology companies can be the prosperity engines of our post-pandemic economy, but our political leaders need to apply an innovation lens to the policy decisions they make today to ensure a positive outcome for tomorrow.

We are hopeful that as the campaign gets underway the NDP will speak more about their plans to help Ontario innovators commercialize technologies and scale their companies globally, all while continuing to create good paying jobs here at home.”

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Media contact:

James McLeod

416.910.3496

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