BCBusiness

TIME TO BITE THE BULLET? A harmonious collaboration of human and robot. A new technoloy disrupting anindustry that hasn't changed much since the invention of the logging truck. This is the promise of automation, articial intel- ligence, virtual and augmented reality, the Internet of things and other emerging tech- nologies. Done right, harnessing stacks of data makes jobs safer, easier and less mun- dane, and helps companies become more e•cient, competitive and innovative. B.C. is well positioned to capitalize on what some call the fourth Industrial Revo- lution. Already tech hubs, Vancouver and Victoria lie in the same time zone as and a short ƒight from other industry hot spots on the West Coast. The Lower Mainland is sec- ond only to Silicon Valley for the size of its virtual and augmented reality cluster, says Dan Burgar, president of the international VR/AR Association's Vancouver chapter. From 15 member companies in 2015, his organization has grown to 230. Last year Japanese IT giant Fujitsu located its global centre for AI development in B.C. Plus, the province is home to three top research universities— SFU, UBC and UVic—known for producing skilled grads and innovative technoloy, and several other post-secondary institutions lauded for their responsive programming. Still, we've all heard the same com- plaints. Government policies and high taxes discourage growth. Businesses nd it hard to attract and retain talent. A lack of ven- ture capital forces homegrown companies to look across the border. And risk aversion permeates the province and the country. "I think the reluctance or fear to embrace technoloy too quickly historically kept industry stable," says Charles Lavigne, co- founder of LlamaZoo. "But sometimes you have to bite the bullet and go with what the market demands." AUTOMATIC FAIL This is the intersection where B.C. sits. If we make the right moves, we'll fertilize a vibrant technoloy industry that sucks in investment and blooms production. Get it wrong, and the province's economy could wither, prompting the tech sector to move to friendlier valleys. Putting B.C. in the sunny patch requires government and busi- ness working together. And a lot of data—to understand what's happening in industry and to fuel this technological revolution. How are we doing so far? "The data is conclusive: Canada is not productive, and automation risks making it worse," says David Williams, VP of policy at the Business Council of British Columbia. Williams came to that conclusionafter authoring two reports in 2018. One found that Canadian workers are some 20-percent less productive per hour than their U.S., German and French counterparts. To try to catch up in the past few decades, Canada relied on people working longer hours and women enter- ing the job market. Both strate- gies are now tapped out. The second report teased out how automation will impact B.C. workers. Williams gures that 42 per- cent of occupations in the province have signicant potential for automation over the next 20 years, and that it will touch almost every worker. Digitization should encour- age strong job growth and wage gains for highly skilled workers, he says, and moder- ate growth and gains for those with basic skills. So-called middle-skill roles, like o•ce-support and production-line jobs, will feel automation's bite the most. Put those ndings together, and they point to a systemic problem: B.C. busi- nesses spend less on capital investment, research and development, and training employees than companies in the U.S. "There's a big opportunity here to improve our economy," Williams says. "We need to employ new tools, new skills and new technoloy to make every human worker more productive." He thinks government has a big role to play. Higher productivity could fund a bet- ter safety net that helps educate and train people who lose their jobs to automation, and the right tax incentives and policy shifts could encourage competition. "Survival is a powerful motivator for rms to update pro- cesses and invest in people and equipment," Williams observes. The provincial government realizes that change is coming, says Bruce Ralston, B.C.'s minister of jobs, trade and technoloy. "Our government is taking action to ensure that people have the skills they need for the jobs of tomorrow," Ralston tells BCBusiness. The Emerging Economy Task Force, which includes experts from industry and academia, is advising the government on navi- gating the automation shift. Since taking power in 2017, the NDP have created the B.C. Employer Training Grant to enable compa- nies to up-skill sta§. They've also invested more than $60 million in tech-focused seats at universities, co-op opportunities, schol- arships and entrepreneurial training, and appointed innovation commissioner Alan Winter to advocate for B.C. tech rms at the federal and international levels. To help ideas become businesses, Crown agency Innovate BC runs 12 accelerator programs. Federally, there's the B.C.-based Canada's Digital Technoloy Supercluster, an industry-led collaborative effort that aims to allow small and medium-sized busi- nesses to scale and to make the country a global leader in digital innovation. T H E F U T U R E o f W O R K Whatever Works In March, Mustel Group asked 501 Metro Vancouver residents: Do you think employers have a responsibility to retrain employees or assist them in other ways if their role is automated or replaced by technology? n Yes: 74.3% n No: 24.2% n Don't know: 1.6% Men n Yes: 84.3% n No: 10.7% n Don't know: 4.9% Women 28 BCBUSINESS MAY 2019

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