Your bi-weekly briefing on policy developments, advocacy insights and the conversations that shape both regional progress and your business success. October 29, 2026 Sign up | View online Hello, The first rung of the career ladder is getting harder to reach. Youth unemployment in Canada climbed from 10 per cent in 2022 to nearly 14 per cent in 2025, leaving 437,000 young Canadians looking for work and unable to find it. AI is adding new pressure, increasingly taking on tasks traditionally handed to entry-level workers. The people who will run Canada’s AI-enabled economy are entering the workforce now. Preparing them is a shared job for employers, educators, and governments, and many are already stepping up. At two recent Board events, leaders from business and academia pointed to gaps at every stage. HP Canada President Michelle Biase said the company is already rethinking its internships to give students earlier exposure to strategy and decision-making. University of Toronto President Melanie Woodin is pushing for more experiential learning so graduates arrive ready for work that is already changing. The challenge doesn’t end once young people land a job. For those already in the workforce, skills are lagging behind the tools. Only 24 per cent of Canadians have received any AI training. There’s a communication gap, too: just 33 per cent of knowledge workers say their employers clearly explain how AI could affect their roles, compared with 52 per cent of business leaders who believe they do. Closing that gap is one of the easier wins available. That’s where World Trade Centre Toronto comes in. Through our Growth Development Program, offered through the AI Business Catalyst with support from FedDev Ontario, we’re helping leaders of small and mid-sized businesses put AI to work and bring their teams along. Over six months, participants work through hands-on workshops, mentoring, and peer exchange, and leave with a practical AI roadmap for their organization. The next cohort starts November 30. At the top, the pressure to find the next wave of talent is building too. Member firm Phelps notes that retirement waves are accelerating at the executive level. If companies struggle to bring in and develop junior talent today, they’ll feel it later, when it’s time to fill those leadership roles. Some of the solutions are simpler than they look. For six years, the Board has hosted a case competition with U of T Mississauga students, who this year used AI to tackle a live challenge from Waterfront Toronto. Students get real-world experience, and the host organization gets fresh thinking on a real problem, at little cost. We’re inviting more members to bring a challenge of their own to future competitions. Canada has the foundation for a world-class workforce. Now it needs a talent pipeline to match, with graduates ready for jobs in flux, workers trained on the tools they’re already using, and leaders prepared to step up. What to Expect in this Issue ▸ By the Numbers: Where Canada Stands on AI ▸ 3 Questions on AI’s Impact on the Workforce ▸ Featured Events ▸ Policy at a Glance SOURCES: 1: Canadian CEO Leadership Forum, Insights from PwC's 29th Global CEO Survey 2: Canada's AI Future: Scaling AI for Business Growth 3: HP and the Future of Work: Redefining Productivity for the AI Era 4: Ontario’s Next Power Play: Meeting the Demands of the AI Economy 3 Questions on AI’s Impact on the Workforce A massive workforce shift is coming, and no one will be exempt. It will affect everyone from students still in the classroom to workers nearing retirement. The question isn’t whether it will happen, but to what degree and whether our education and training systems are ready to cope with the disruption. We asked Saad Usmani, the Board’s Senior Director of Economic Research and Workforce Development, how Canada can best prepare. 1. How is AI’s impact on jobs different from past disruptions, such as from automation? “For one, this time we can see it coming. While we haven’t seen AI adoption have meaningful impacts on the labour market yet, it’s still early days. But we can look to history to see how major technological shifts can impact specific tasks and occupations. For example, the adoption of automation technologies led to a gradual but constant decline in the share of occupations with routine tasks, like assembly line workers. Secondly, unlike previous technological waves, AI can serve as a disruptor for highly paid white-collar or creative work. We know the nature of work will change, and the labour market will see inevitable disruption. We must act accordingly to ensure Canadian workers benefit from this shift and don’t get left behind.” 2. One common response for addressing job losses is retraining programs. Is that sufficient for AI displacement? “Not on its own and our track record for retraining programs isn’t great. When laid-off workers in Ontario were retrained in classrooms in the early 2000s, a federal evaluation found it raised their odds of finding work by less than five percentage points, and it took nearly eight years for the benefits to outweigh the costs. Put another way, only about one in 23 participants found work they wouldn’t have found anyway. Programs that placed people directly with employers did nearly twice as well on job placement and paid off in half the time.” 3. So what should we be doing differently, and who’s doing it well? “Design high-quality retraining programs side-by-side with employers today before we start to see job losses and disruption in the labour market. In the U.S., a new nonprofit called RAISE US launched in June with more than $500 million secured toward a $1 billion target. Rather than designing the training on its own, the group is working with employers to fund and help build these programs, based on the changes they’re already seeing in their own workplaces. That matters because employers know which skills they’ll need, so workers are training for jobs that exist rather than guessing at what might. The programs that work best tend to bring employers in from the start.” Want to dig deeper? Join us on January 19 for The Talent Symposium: Hiring, Training and Competing in the AI Era. Business leaders, educators, and economists will share practical, employer-led strategies for building a future-ready workforce, from skills-based hiring to work-integrated learning. Member POV “The Times Higher Education ranks U of T as the third top public university in North America, only behind UCLA and Berkeley. And whenever I share this headline, you have to know I am deeply conflicted, because I know number three is impressive. But I am simultaneously asking myself, why aren't we number one? By every estimation, we have all the ingredients we need to rise in the ranks.” — Melanie Woodin, President, University of Toronto and a Member of the Business Council of Toronto's Executive Table at Meeting the Moment for Canada: Building Solutions for a Rapidly Changing World “AI adoption is table stakes. We know this, but adoption is not simple. Canada's next advantage will come from how effectively businesses can put AI to work. The role of Canadian businesses is to turn our AI leadership into broader economic progress by adopting AI in ways that improve productivity, strengthen competitiveness, and create value across our economy.” — Michelle Biase, HP Canada President and Managing Director speaking at Canada's AI Future: Scaling AI for Business Growth Get Involved Growth Development Program: November Cohort Getting a workforce ready for AI starts with its leaders. World Trade Centre Toronto’s six-month Growth Development Program helps small and mid-sized business executives build an implementation-ready AI roadmap through workshops, mentoring, and a confidential peer cohort. Apply here. Policy at a Glance RELATED REPORTS & INSIGHTS A Blueprint for Growth: Towards a New Deal for Housing Regulating for Growth: 18 Actions to Unlock Canada's Financial Services Sector Beyond the Investment Summit: Preparing Ontario to Attract and Retain Global Investment The Technology Imperative: Rebuilding Ontario's Manufacturing Advantage Raising the Bar: Improving the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program Reading this as a forward? Subscribe to stay connected. TORONTO REGION BOARD OF TRADE PRINCIPAL PARTNERS Toronto Region Board of Trade | 21 Melinda St, Suite 900 | Toronto, ON M5L 1G3 | Canada | 416.366.6811 If you do not wish to receive emails from Toronto Region Board of Trade, unsubscribe or update your preferences.