Canada’s immigration system isn’t one program; it’s an entire architecture. A maze of pathways, permits, and policies that shape who gets in, who gets to work, and who gets to stay.

In this episode, host Marwa Abdou sits down with Dr. Mikal Skuterud, Professor of Economics at the University of Waterloo, and one of Canada’s leading labour economists, to unpack what he calls the country’s two-step system, where people arrive on temporary status before transitioning, often uncertainly, to permanent residency. Together, they explore the unintended consequences of a capless temporary system that neither fulfills the promise of permanence made to immigrants nor strategically addresses Canada’s deeper economic gaps.

Their conversation challenges a familiar narrative: That immigration success can be measured by sheer numbers or GDP growth alone. Instead, they argue that immigration policy should be guided by a different goal — higher living standards for everyone. That means aligning inflows with investment in housing, healthcare and productivity, and ensuring immigration fuels tomorrow’s innovation rather than simply today’s labour shortages.

This is an episode about recalibrating ambition and rethinking how Canada’s immigration system can match the scale of its promise.

Links
- Mikal Skuterud, University of Waterloo
- Mikal Skuterud, C.D. Howe Institute
- A Realistic Strategy to Wean Canadian Businesses Off Low-Skill Foreign Labour
- The Growing Data Gap on Canada’s Temporary Resident Workforce
- Optimizing Immigration for Economic Growth by Matthew Doyle, Mikal Skuterud, and Christopher Worswick
- The economic case against low-wage temporary foreign workers by Fabian Lange, Mkal Skutrud & Christopher Worswick, IRPP

Other Resources:
- Are Immigrants Particularly Entrepreneurial? Policy Lessons from a Selective Immigration System by David Green
- How does increasing immigration affect the economy?
- From Roots to Routes: Immigrant Entrepreneurs and How they are Shaping Canada’s Trade Future
- Trends in education–occupation mismatch among recent immigrants with a bachelor’s degree or higher, 2001 to 2021
- Canada is Wasting the Talents of its Skilled Immigrants 

What’s the greatest comeback Canada has never seen?  

According to special guest Carol Ann Hilton, Founder and CEO of the Indigenomics Institute, it’s re-centering Indigenous economic power and Indigenous participation. But part of that re-centering requires acknowledging that Canada was formed through Indigenous economic and cultural exclusion and that this exclusion has an impacted all Canadians, even generations far removed from the Indian Act. 

In this episode, host Marwa Abdou and Carol Anne Hilton unpack Indigenomics: a framework for redesigning economic systems around reciprocity, responsibility, and relationship to land. Together they explore how 150 years of exclusion produced today’s inequalities, why corporate Canada has a duty under Truth and Reconciliation Call to Action 92, and what it means to build economies where land is law, stewardship is strategy, and growth is measured through shared prosperity. 

Their conversation flows from examples of how Indigenous businesses operate from fundamentally different values, prioritizing community, future generations, and responsibility, all the way to the radical concept of "land as law" — starting with responsibility rather than impact assessment — and its role in reshaping infrastructure development. From clean energy and procurement reform to “land as governance,” this episode challenges listeners to rethink what reconciliation looks like — not as ceremony, but as economic design.

 
Links
- Carol Anne Hilton, Indigenomics Institute 
- Indigenomics: Taking a Seat at the Economic Table (2021) 
- The Rise of Indigenous Economic Power (2025)

Other Resources:
- Sharing the Wealth: How Resource Revenue Agreements Can Rebalance Canada’s Economy by Ken Coates
- Living Rhythms: Lessons in Aboriginal Economic Resilience and Vision by Wanda Wuttunee
- Upholding Indigenous Economic Relationships: nehiyawak narratives by Shalene Jobin
- Resilience, Reciprocity and Ecological Economics Northwest Coast Sustainability by Ronald Trosper
- What Can Tribes Do? Strategies and Institutions in American Indian Economic Development by Stephen Cornell and Joseph P. Kalt 
- Economic Aspects of the Indigenous Experience in Canada by Anya Hageman and Pauline Galoustian

Does your favourite social media app or e-commerce site’s algorithm hold more power than your country’s elected government? Do regulators really have to choose between innovation and security? Can algorithms be neutral? 

Listen as host Marwa Abdou and guests Vass Bednar (Executive Director, Canadian Shield Institute) and Kaylie Tiessen (Chief Economist, Canadian Shield Institute) discuss the profound and often invisible influence digital platforms and algorithms have on our society and economy. 

In this extended episode, explore how a handful of digital platforms act as “shadow regulators” — setting the rules of the game through opaque code and recommendation systems that shape markets, work, and opportunity far from democratic oversight. From gig work to competition law, the conversation reveals how Canada’s regulatory frameworks are racing to keep up. 

But it doesn’t stop at diagnosis. Together, Marwa, Vass, and Kaylie discuss what it would take to fill Canada’s “regulatory vacuum” — smart, adaptive rules that serve the public good while supporting innovation, trust, and competitiveness in the digital age.

Links:
- Canadian Shield Institute
- Vass Bednar - Regs to Riches Newsletter
- Vass Bednar – Center for International Governance Innovation
- Kaylie Tiessen 
- Kaylie Tiessen – Social Capital Partners
- OECD Digital Economy Outlook (2024)
- World Bank – World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives 

Did you know that nearly half of the world’s trade moves through the Asia-Pacific? That your blueberries in January, the anime you stream, and your kid’s hockey gear are all part of a system quietly shaped by economies as varied as Chile, Japan, Mexico, Korea and Vietnam? 

Listen as host Marwa Abdou peels back the layers on the forum that keeps much of that world running smoothly: APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation). It isn’t a trade deal or a bloc — it’s a voluntary sandbox where 21 economies test ideas, build trust and scale what works. 

In this extended episode, Marwa is joined by Eduardo Pedrosa, Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat, and Carlos Kuriyama, Director of APEC’s Policy Support Unit. Together, they explain how non-binding cooperation can deliver real outcomes — from single-window customs and cross-border privacy rules to AI guardrails to greener supply chains to pathways that help informal and micro firms step into the formal economy. They also dive into APEC’s new focus on the creative economy, and why digital trust is now part of trade infrastructure. 

For a trade-heavy country like Canada, this is more than theory — it’s jobs, competitiveness and inclusive growth. The question isn’t whether rules will be written, it’s whether we’ll help write them.

Links
- Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
- APEC publications & policy briefs
- APEC Internet & Digital Economy Roadmap (AIDER)
- Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) Forum
- Lima Roadmap to Promote the Transition to the Formal and Global Economies (2025-2040)
- APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040
- APEC Environmental Goods List (54 items)

In this special back-to-basics episode of Canada’s Economy, Explained, host Marwa Abdou cuts through the alphabet soup of GDPs, CPIs, and BoC rate cuts to tackle the real questions Canadians keep asking.

• Why is it easier to trade with the U.S. than across provinces?
• Why is climate policy so expensive?
• Why are interest rates cooling inflation but putting the freeze on housing?
• Why is youth unemployment so high?
• And what’s really at stake in Mark Carney’s first federal budget?

As James Carville once quipped on the campaign trail, “It’s the economy, stupid” — and more than three decades later, the line still rings true (especially north of the border). Packed with sharp insights and plain-language explanations, this episode unpacks the economic forces shaping our paycheques, prices, and future prosperity — and why, in 2025, it’s still the economy.

Once a pillar of middle-class security, affordable homeownership has slipped out of reach for millions of Canadians. But economist Mike Moffatt (Missing Middle Initiative, Smart Prosperity Institute, Ivey Business School at Western University) argues the housing crisis isn’t just about sky-high prices; it’s the result of a system-wide failure.

In this episode, Moffatt joins host Marwa Abdou to trace how that failure emerged from the collision of well-meaning but clashing policies: greenbelts that preserve farmland while choking supply, immigration targets that fuel growth but strain capacity, and zoning laws that shut out the “missing middle” homes families desperately need.

The conversation goes beyond affordability, exploring the so-called “housing theory of everything” — how the effects of broken housing markets ripple through entrepreneurship, fertility rates, and even political stability. From building codes to taxation, Moffatt and Abdou unpack the tough trade-offs ahead and ask: Can Canada fix housing before it undermines our economic future?

Links

-  Mike Moffatt, Smart Prosperity Institute

-  Mike Moffatt, Medium  

-  Mike Moffatt, the Hub.ca

-  Mike Moffatt, the Globe and Mail

Canada’s population is retiring earlier and living longer. Even so, the age 65 retirement threshold, inherited from 19th-century Prussia, continues to anchor public policy and social expectations. In this episode, Professor Kevin Milligan (Professor of Economics, University of British Columbia) joins host Marwa Abdou to breakdown how this outdated convention often fails to account for disparities in health and life expectancy across income levels and regions, and how it can unintentionally push the most vulnerable seniors into poverty. In addition, the conversation explores the demographic changes that are at odds with the short-term focus of political planning cycles (which rarely extend beyond five years), and how policies need reform so that Canadians can not only survive in retirement but truly thrive. 

Links:  

- Kevin Milligan, University of British Columbia, Vancouver School of Economics 

- Kevin Milligan, C.D. Howe Institute 

- Kevin Milligan, Globe and Mail 

- The time of your life: The mortality and longevity of Canadians 

- Retirement incentives and decisions across the income distribution: Evidence in Canada 

- Health and Capacity to Work of Older Canadians: Gender and Regional Dimensions with Tammy Schirle 

- The Evolution of Longevity: Evidence from Canada,” with Tammy Schirle 

Do Canada’s public policies reflect the reality of today’s workers?

Many of the social programs Canadians rely on for economic security were designed in and for a very different era. Built around a mid-20th-century vision of work and family life, programs like Employment Insurance, the Canada Pension Plan, and key parts of our tax system still assume a post-war era worker that is full-time, uninterrupted and unburdened by caregiving.

In this extended episode, Professors Tammy Schirle (Wilfrid Laurier University) and Jennifer Robson (Carleton University) join host Marwa Abdou to unpack how caregiving responsibilities, gender inequities and access barriers collide with outdated policy assumptions. From motherhood penalties to administrative red tape, this conversation examines the hidden gaps shaping Canadians’ financial stability — and what it will take to build a system that works for today’s workforce.

Links:

- Tammy Schirle, Wilfrid Laurier University
- Jennifer Robson, Carleton University

- Tammy Schirle, C.D. Howe

- Jennifer Robson, Policy Options, IRPP 

- Food insecurity among Canadian adults with disabilities is shockingly high. Here’s what we could do about that.(Robson, 2024)

- State Capacity and Administrative Burdens on Citizens: Time for Export Controls and Transparency (Robson, 2024)

- Finances of the Nation: Federal and Provincial Income Support Programs for Seniors in Canada (Schirle, 2024)

- What Proportion of Tax Returns Could the Canada Revenue Agency Complete? (Genest-Grégoire, Robson et al., 2023)

In this episode of Canada’s Economy, Explained, host Marwa Abdou sits down with Avi Goldfarb—Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare at the University of Toronto, and co-author of Prediction Machines and Power and Prediction. 

Goldfarb is one of the world’s leading economists on the business implications of AI. Together, they examine why Canada, despite its early leadership in AI research, is lagging in adoption. Goldfarb explains that AI’s real power isn’t automation—it’s prediction. And while Canada has outstanding academic talent and AI research hubs, it hasn’t yet translated that strength into broad commercial or public-sector impact. “We’re still figuring out what the organization of the future looks like,” he says in the episode, while cautioning that hesitation gives global competitors time to scale. They explore the economic promise of AI in healthcare, education, and public services, as well as the risks of overregulation, particularly with laws like Bill C-27. Goldfarb offers a clear message: Canada must act now or risk falling behind.

Links:

- Avi Goldfarb's Website

- Creative Destruction Lab

- Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence (2018)

- Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence (2022)
- Machine Intelligence and Human Judgment (IMF - June 2025)

 Other Resources:

 -  Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Paul Scharre

 -  The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines by David Autor, David A. Mindell and Elisabeth B. Reynolds

In this episode of Canada’s Economy, Explained, host Marwa Abdou explores Canada’s pivotal role as G7 and B7 president in 2025 and the country’s opportunity to lead on AI adoption and sustainability. Joining her are Tom Mosseau and Franco Amalfi from Capgemini Canada—a global consulting and technology firm—who break down the challenges and possibilities facing Canadian businesses.

Tom Mosseau points out that “legacy infrastructure, skills shortages, and investment hesitancy” continue to slow down digital transformation, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. While 61% of Canadian firms believe generative AI could reshape their business strategy, only 28% are actively integrating it into operations. Franco Amalfi raises a red flag: AI’s environmental impact is significant, with “high energy consumption, increased e-waste and water use,” yet only 12% of companies are tracking it.

Capgemini calls for a “responsible by design” approach, emphasizing smaller AI models, renewable energy, and sustainable supply chains. The episode closes by highlighting how coordinated public-private collaboration and long-term digital investment can help Canada build a competitive, ethical, and environmentally responsible economy.

Links:
2025 B7 Communique
Key Takeaways from the B7 Summit
Capgemini – Data & AI
Capgemini – Developing sustainable Gen AI
Prompting Productivity Report