Our Work

Working Paper 31, The final leg: How Ontario can win the innovation race, explores how Ontario’s innovation performance could be boosted by improving commercialization of research and inventions in the province. The Institute examines best practices in commercialization support from the German Fraunhofer Society, which has successfully bridged the gap between early research and large-scale production known as the ‘innovation valley of death’.

The Fraunhofer Society, a network of 69 applied...

In Working Paper 30, The future is not destiny: CEO perspectives on realizing Ontario’s potential, the project team (Institute and Boston Consulting Group) present findings from 33 interviews with CEOs and Futurists (those who spend the majority of their role thinking about trends of the future, particularly around technology). Leaders came from seven clusters: Construction, Financial Services (including insurance), Health, ICT, Manufacturing, Marketing, Design and Publishing, and Other.

The...

In Working Paper 29, The labour market shift: Training a highly skilled and resilient workforce in Ontario, the Institute examines Ontario's changing labour market and skills, employer-driven training, and government skills training programs. Ontario’s labour market has changed. For Ontarians to remain resilient in face of this change, they must be equipped with skills that are transferable across occupations and sectors.

Main findings: 

• Most workplace spending on training is concentrated...

In Working Paper 28, Immigration in Ontario: Achieving best outcomes for newcomers and the economy, the Institute studies the state of immigration in Ontario. 

The analysis reveals many striking findings of the outcomes of Ontario's immigrants compared to their Canadian-born peers. 

Key findings:

• Ontario's immigrants are not reaching their full potential, and as a result, Ontario's prosperity is reduced
• Ontario takes in proportionally less economic class immigrants than the rest of the...

In Working Paper 27, Looking beyond GDP: Measuring prosperity in Ontario, the Institute analyzes the province and its peer jurisdictions across 11 measures of well-being: access to services, community, civic engagement, education, environment, health, housing, income, jobs, life satisfaction, and safety. The results reveal that Ontario is 5th overall among its peer group. Ontario achieves the greatest results in access to services, health, and safety, but the lowest results in jobs and income. ...read more

Strengthening clusters can lead to increased productivity, economic growth, and prosperity because clusters foster interactions that can energize the regional economy. In Working Paper 26, Clusters in Ontario the Institute highlights five strong, traded clusters in Ontario. The Institute recommends that the Ontario government facilitate the growth of such clusters - rather than replicate them or force their existence. 

The Institute recommends that the Ontario government facilitate the growth...

Licence to Innovate Revisited provides perspectives on government innovation from people within and outside the Ontario Public Service. This leads to a revised framework, additional case studies, and actionable recommendations.

The Institute recommends the government of Ontario:

Integrate innovation to counter the risk-averse culture. 

• Building innovation into core government activities signals that it is desirable and acceptable.

Revise funding frameworks and apply behavioural insights...

In its 25th Working Paper, the Institute models the impact of Ontario's cap-and-trade program on economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions. According to macroeconomic modelling under four scenarios, Ontario should link with the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) as soon as possible and provide support to its carbon intensive at-risk industries. In doing so, the province will achieve the greatest reductions in emissions while maintaining economic growth and competitiveness. The four scenarios...

Less than half of policy professionals in Ontario's Public Service feel innovation is valued in their work. However, enhancing innovation in policy design, processes, and implementation can build more effective and efficient public services. In Working Paper 24, Licence to innovate, the Institute reviews and compares innovation in the government of Ontario and abroad.

Government’s failure to innovate today means less effective and less efficient public services tomorrow. Based on comparative...

In A place to grow: Scaling up Ontario's firms, the Institute looks at over 140,000 businesses in Ontario spanning seven key sectors to determine the factors that are most strongly associated with large firms. The results vary drastically by sector and firm size, which implies that targeted, sector-specific efforts are required to maximize Ontario’s potential.

In general, firms in goods-producing sectors thrive when engaging in trade activities, especially exporting. Location is also a strong...

Discussions regarding infrastructure investment as a driver of economic growth have returned to the forefront of policy debates. Both Ontario’s provincial government and the federal government have proposed record commitments to infrastructure in their latest budgets. However, not all infrastructure assets enhance productivity. Fostering productivity growth is the single greatest challenge for both public and private sectors in Ontario. Simply investing in infrastructure will not necessarily...

Inspired by the announcement of the Jobs and Prosperity Fund (JPF), the Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity conducted extensive research comparing Ontario to regional competitors to assess the areas where the government should act to improve business attractiveness. Our Working Paper 21 – Open for business: Strategies for improving Ontario’s business attractiveness – aims to advise the government on how to get the best return on investment for the Fund.

There are many factors behind a...