Our Impact

We have a long way to go to create workplaces that embrace neurodivergent Canadians and get the best out of them. That is the conclusion of a series of research studies we conducted on how employers can better support these individuals. Our research series has resulted in the publication of three research outputs aimed at helping organizations who want to create more inclusive workplaces. The outputs are:

Despite the many benefits of a neurodiverse workplace, neurodivergent individuals encounter barriers to employment and career progression. For example, only 33 per cent of adults on the Autism spectrum were employed in 2017, compared with 79 per cent of adults with no disability. This gap alone is estimated to cost the Canadian economy anywhere from $6 billion to $11 billion annually.

In FY2023, we presented this work to audiences of over 900 attendees at the following events:

This research is raising awareness for Canadian employers of the need to create workplaces where neurodivergent individuals can thrive. We look forward to continuing to advance the discussion and inclusion of neurodivergent workers in coming years.

OpportuNext was created to solve a major challenge facing Canadian students and workers—knowing what jobs will be available in the future and how to build a future-proof career. With the rise of automation and artificial intelligence, many Canadians are asking, “Are the skills I have currently transferable to a new career if my job disappears?” OpportuNext answers that question and helps Canadians identify where their next opportunity might arise.

To achieve this, OpportuNext draws on four massive data sources comprising 13 billion data points to allow users to explore over 30,0000 career opportunities.

Data for occupation attributes like skills, abilities, knowledge, work activities, tools, training, and education are sourced from O*NET and Vicinity Jobs databases. Salary information is sourced from Statistics Canada’s Canadian Labour Force Survey (LFS). Employment growth prospects are based on data from the Model of Occupations, Skills, and Technology (MOST), and from an occupational forecast produced by Employment and Social Development Canada.

Since its launch in April 2021, thousands of Canadians and their employers have accessed OpportuNext to “see where your skills can take you.” This free-to-use tool was created with support from the Future Skills Centre. Users enter basic information, such as their job title, and OpportuNext identifies options using our proprietary database. The tool identifies careers that require similar skills, abilities, and experience along with job salary and career outlook information. It can identify emerging transition careers and options that may not have been considered previously.

In fiscal year 2023, The Conference Board partnered with North America’s largest urban innovation hub, the MaRS Discovery District, to launch a national research centre to examine and develop solutions to one of Canada’s greatest innovation challenges—the failure to turn our strong research and development into commercial success.

Despite having a highly educated workforce and strong research capability, Canada repeatedly fails to turn these advantages into commercial success and innovation-based economic growth. This powerful partnership with MaRS will help drive research into concrete actions that support Canadian entrepreneurs and innovators.

The Canadian Centre for the Innovation Economy (CCIE) brings together Canadian innovation hubs, institutions, entrepreneurs, governments, corporate partners, and investors to research critical issues facing the innovation community and deliver data-driven insights to decision-makers. This research and the partners and venture funders who are members of the Centre will change the Canadian innovation landscape for the better.

Our research reveals ways Canada can enhance its productivity and global competitiveness through innovation. In collaboration with MaRS, we focus on how we can accelerate technology adoption and the scaling-up of Canadian businesses. Additionally, we analyze the implications of technological advancements on the future of work. Key focus areas include benchmarking Canada’s innovation performance, assessing the state of innovation ecosystems, and recommending ways to leverage the key drivers of commercialization, entrepreneurship, and corporate innovation to accelerate Canada’s innovation ecosystem. Canada needs new approaches to address our underperforming innovation across all sectors of the economy. The CCIE is our response to that challenge.

Yung Wu

CEO, MaRS

“CCIE brings together innovators, entrepreneurs, government, and investors to deliver deep research insights on critical issues facing the innovation community. Canada needs this now.”

We are on the precipice of a major change in the economic relationship with Indigenous nations and Canada. Indigenous communities’ equity ownership in major projects stands to drastically reshape how they pursue self-determination and financial independence. To achieve these benefits, we need to better support equity ownership and engage in an honest appraisal of the lingering harms many major projects have caused for Indigenous communities.

Our research series on Indigenous ownership is contributing to dialogue and action on Indigenous participation in three key ways:

In fiscal year 2023, we have been invited to share the results of this research with audiences of over 600 representatives from industry, government, and communities at forums hosted by:

Indigenous peoples are forging a new economic future that stands in stark contrast with major project failures of the past. Our work is being recognized for its contributions to changing economic relationships for Indigenous nations.

Read the research: