We are unique in the Canadian landscape.
We approach our work with a dedication to independence and neutrality. Our choice of research is driven by the needs of Canada’s leaders, not by personal or political interests or ideology. Our relationships with leaders are anchored on their trust in the validity and objectivity of our analyses and insights.
How we make an impact
To ensure that our work matters, we:
Focus on relevant issues by researching the Wicked Problems Canada faces and convening around these most pressing and complex problems challenging our leaders.
Ground our work in the realities of politics, business practices, and systems change—so that our recommendations are applicable, and create momentum for change.
Involve key thought leaders and practitioners in the design and delivery of our content to ensure it is focused on relevant questions and provides meaningful solutions.
Provide meaningful and actionable recommendations for leaders, based on the evidence we generate.
Research outputs
375
Research outputs
178
Online experiences
128
Issue briefings
45
Impact papers
10
Data briefings
8
Summaries for executives
2
Primers
2
Toolkits
1
Case study
1
Mapping tool
CBoC makes an impact when Canada’s leaders are aware of our work, value our research and expertise, and act on our insights.
Trust is our most important asset
There are worrying signs that Canada is veering off track. This past year, housing affordability, low productivity, increasing climate impacts, and recurring issues with our economic performance are raising alarms bells. Without evidence-based action, we risk not addressing these problems effectively.
The Conference Board is at the centre of many of the biggest challenges facing our country. We work with our partners to shed light on the path forward. Failing to act is not an option. A better future for all Canadians is at stake.
Engagement, connections, and participation
1.96M
Page views on our website
52.4K
Downloads of research outputs
48.1K
Research contributors and event participants
17.9K
Listens to our podcast episodes
902
Meetings with decision-makers and influencers
15.5K
Broadcast and media articles
20.5K
X followers (formerly known as Twitter)
1.2M
In social reach
Top 10 digital subscription outputs
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How we measure the degree to which our work is valued
We have influence when leaders who are aware of our work seek us out or agree to collaborate with us.
The degree to which our work and expertise are valued is reflected in the invitations we receive to share our insights, the frequency with which our work is referenced, and the calibre of the organizations and individuals who are willing to partner with us and lend us their voice.
81
Public speaking engagements for CBoC staff.
13
Presentations to government committees, participation in official government consultations and presentations to government ministers.
535+
Instances of CBoC research being cited in government or political statements, speeches, academic journals, or industry documents.
How we measure the degree to which our work has resulted in positive change
Making an impact is a journey composed of many small steps to build understanding that the Wicked Problems facing our country have solutions. Through our work, we seek to bring about positive change.
The journey of impact culminates when leaders place such a high value on our insights that they are persuaded to take action. These actions result in new or adjusted policies and practices that provide social, environmental, and economic benefits to Canadians.
Impact in action
Through our impact key performance indicators, we track our organization’s steps on the journey to change. Our awareness and value indicators demonstrate how our research and expertise are being received outside of our organization.
Our impact in action narratives show how leaders are implementing changes based on our insights.
Addressing Canada’s housing crisis
One of the most important issues of this past year has been Canada’s housing challenges. There’s not enough housing, and the housing that is available is increasingly unaffordable. While there is broad consensus that we face critical issues in our housing market, the causes of those shortfalls and the responses needed to address them have been steeped in politics.
The Conference Board of Canada released several studies this past year aimed at addressing misunderstandings or contributing new research to inform an evidence-based way forward. These included a sober analysis of the long-term trends that have led to insufficient construction of residential housing across Canada since 2011. “Between 2011 and 2022, completions lagged household formations by about 382,700 units. In 2022 alone, almost 61,900 more households were formed than housing units were started.”1 Changing demographic and household formation trends also contributed to current shortages. The causes of Canada’s housing supply challenges took years to develop, and we note that the solutions will require a variety of approaches.
One of the easy political steps politicians started to take was to ban short-term temporary rentals like Airbnb and VRBO. In 2024, British Columbia’s government introduced legislation to restrict short-term rentals to within a host’s home or a basement suite or laneway home on their property of residence, boost non-compliance fines, and require short-term rental platforms to share data with municipalities.
The Conference Board was asked to analyze the potential of these kinds of bans on lowering rental prices. We found “no compelling evidence that the level of Airbnb activity had a meaningful impact on rents.” This is likely because “the share of dwellings used for Airbnb activity is too small in most neighbourhoods—on average less than 0.5 per cent—to have a meaningful impact.”
Our analysis on the impact of short-term temporary rentals led to us being invited to contribute to the federal government’s preliminary engagement on Enforcement For Short-Term Rental Restrictions.
Another factor that media and politicians hit on was the role immigration was playing in our housing challenges. The Conference Board’s Immigration knowledge area highlighted how the current immigration system is not set up to select immigrants with experience in in-demand occupations within the trades. Key occupations like construction trades helpers and labourers are excluded from economic immigration programs.
We recommended allocating a small number of immigration places to occupations that are core to residential construction within Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC’s) existing Immigration Levels Plan to mitigate labour shortages and advance the building of new homes. In the months following our report’s publication, the federal government introduced category-based selection, which includes trades as a separate category for immigrants with these skills to apply through targeted Express Entry draws. Our research indicates that these policies show promise in increasing the supply of immigrants with the skills needed to mitigate critical labour shortages and advance the building of new homes.
Read more:
- Conference Board of Canada, The, Canada’s Housing Affordability Challenge: Plenty of Questions, Some Answers—January 2024, p.5:
Benchmarking Canada’s innovation performance
“Canada has lost its way regarding innovation. Our nation scores a C on The Conference Board of Canada’s Innovation Report Card, ranking 15th among 20 countries. Of the 21 innovation indicators, Canada scores below average on 14 of the indicators.” (Innovation Report Card 2024)
The stark opening of the latest update to the Innovation Report Card (IRC) highlights the critical role innovation plays in advancing our economy. In this update, we sought to make the tool Canada’s national reference standard for policy-makers to measure innovation performance.
Over the year, we have presented the IRC to many Government of Canada and Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) forums. These have included a meeting of 20 associate deputy ministers; The Director Generals’ Working Group with an audience of 10 director generals and 95 staff; and presentations to three distinct branches in the department (Results, ICT, Digital). The focus has been on supporting them in understanding our analysis and how they can apply these insights to their strategy.
We have been told directly that the federal government is now referencing the IRC in the development of policy responses to the challenges identified through the 21 indicators. Today, directors general at ISED are asking division directors to reference and include the IRC in their policy and strategy briefings. We continue to advance understanding of what the IRC tells us about Canada’s innovation paradox and our strengths and weaknesses as a nation.
The alarm bells are ringing
Canada’s inability to speed up innovation-based economic growth isn’t just a business risk. It’s also a prelude to reduced international leadership potential, less availability of quality jobs, and a subsequent decline in its citizens’ living standards. Failing to reverse this trend will put what we hold dear as Canadians at risk.
Our healthcare system, our infrastructure, our competitiveness, our education, our position in the world all hinge on taking action—in some cases drastic action—to reverse our slide to the bottom.
Each policy that doesn’t address the dire need for innovation is a step toward a future where Canada lags, while other nations leap forward. It’s imperative to design policies that are not just reactive but visionary—fostering a culture of innovation that can avert the looming economic downturn, and secure a prosperous, stable future for every Canadian.
This report card is a wake-up call for policy-makers and business leaders. It paints a picture of a country that has lost its way on innovation. If we don’t change our path, all Canadians will suffer.
Source: The Conference Board of Canada, 2024 Innovation Report Card: Benchmarking Canada’s Innovation Performance. Ottawa: The Conference Board of Canada, 2024.
Economic forecasts that governments rely on
As one of Canada’s largest and most influential economic forecasting shops, The Conference Board of Canada’s economic forecasts are known for their depth and breadth. In FY24, we produced 289 forecast products and wrote an additional 94 economic quick takes responding to the economic news of the day.
Governments rely on our forecasts to help inform their policy decisions. For example, in March our research on the economic impact of operations at the Pickering and Darlington nuclear generation stations was referenced twice in the 2024 Ontario Budget, and our provincial GDP forecast was included in the Budget’s survey of forecasters.
As one of the only forecasting units in Canada that provides comprehensive forecasts for Canada’s Northern territories, we were thrilled in May to hear that the Yukon Minister of Finance The Honourable Sandy Silver rose in the house to formally recognize our territorial outlook. These examples and many others highlight the trust that governments place in our economic forecasts.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to give notice of the following motion:
THAT this House recognizes the Yukon’s strong economic forecast provided in the 2024 Conference Board of Canada’s Territorial Outlook, including:
(1) strong GDP forecasts averaging four percent;
(2) positive growth in the mining sector;
(3) positive growth in capital planning;
(4) sustained low unemployment rates; and
(5) rebounding growth in the tourism sector
The Honourable Sandy Silver
Shedding light on Canada’s immigrant retention challenge
While much of the discussion this past year was on the overall level of immigration, governments were focused on slowing the pace of new Canadians being welcomed to the country. Beyond absolute numbers of people who come to Canada, another challenge is whether these individuals choose to stay.
Our Immigration knowledge area’s study The Leaky Bucket: A Study of Immigrant Retention Trends in Canada addressed an analytical gap in our understanding of Canada’s immigration system.
We noted that estimating onward migration—immigrants who leave Canada—is a difficult task and is not captured in any administrative data. But without studying onward migration, it becomes difficult to identify changing trends, let alone explain those changes or design policy interventions. In this study, we used lack of fiscal activity (e.g., income) as a proxy for onward migration.
We found onward migration has been steadily increasing since the 1980s, but it surged in both 2017 and 2019, reaching levels 31 per cent higher than the historical average. Onward migration is the highest four to seven years after arrival, indicating that positive early experiences may be key to retaining immigrants in Canada and reversing the recent spike in onward migration.
This study has created media attention throughout the year. Many news outlets used the study as a launching point to hear directly from new Canadians. For example, in a CTV News piece associated with the release of the report in November featured Julian Cristancho who immigrated to Canada from Colombia in 2019. CTV featured Cristancho’s struggle in finding work that would allow him to remain in Canada. “It took around 50 applications and countless hours tailoring resumes and cover letters just to get three initial interviews and not hearing back from those companies,” he wrote in an email to CTVNews.ca.2 CTV reported that in Cristancho’s experience, Canada’s immigration system works well at getting people into the country, but not at setting them up for success after they’ve invested some time here, echoing the broader findings of our study.
- Megan DeLaire, “Immigrants explain why they’re leaving Canada,” CTV News, November 7, 2023.
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