New organization launched to guide Canada’s industrial policy challenges

A newly refreshed Centre for Industrial Policy (CIP) has been launched with the goal to help create an integrated strategic vision for Canada’s economic future, translate that vision into smart policy design, and provide the rigorous analytics needed to evaluate and update Canada’s industrial strategy.

“Not long ago, the debate in Canada was whether industrial policy even had a role to play. Today, the question is how to do it right. This next phase of the Centre for Industrial Policy is built for that moment — giving Canada the practical insights and rigorous analysis it needs to win, economically and geopolitically,” said Moe Kabbara, CEO, The Transition Accelerator.

At the launch event, 50 of Canada’s leading industrial policy experts from industry, government, Indigenous leadership, and civil society gathered to discuss four new reports on topics that will shape Canada’s economy in the decades to come:

• Bentley Allan introduces a new framework to clarify and evaluate the effectiveness of industrial policy.
• Grieg Mordue (McMaster University) and James Meadowcroft (Carlton University) look to the history of Canada’s auto sector to put today’s policy debates in context.
• Matthew da Mota (Canadian Shield Institute) and Laurent Carbonneau (Council of Canadian Innovators) argue for the development of a Canadian dual-use defence-industrial commons.
• Michelle German (StrategyCorp) and Derek Eaton (The Transition Accelerator) explore Canada’s industrialized construction advantage.

 
The event also marked the announcement of David Wolfe as the CIP’s new chair. A leading figure in the study of industrial policy in Canada, Prof. Wolfe currently serves as co-director of the Innovation Policy Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and as a professor emeritus of Political Science at the University of Toronto. He brings an unparalleled blend of practical experience and scholarly knowledge to the Centre, which he will lead alongside Transition Accelerator VP Future Economy Bentley Allan.

“To effectively respond to generational challenges like climate change, enduring problems like the productivity gap, and geopolitical disruptions that continuously shift the rules of the game, Canada needs a more robust industrial policy conversation backed by rigorous analytics. With the stakes raised higher than ever before, The Centre for Industrial Policy is here to help make sure Canada has the right policy mixes to actually achieve its goals,” said Allan.

Added Wolfe: “At a time when Canada faces the most severe economic disruption since the mid-20th century, the Centre for Industrial Policy aims to support policy analysis and public debate to chart a new course for our economy by convening expert analysts and policy practitioners to provide insight into conceptual frameworks to help craft effective policies and evaluate how well those policies are achieving declared objectives.”