Telfer School of Management teams up with Coalition for a Better Future to track Canada's economic progress

Stéphane Brutus, Dean of the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management, calls it “the match made in heaven.”

As the research partner for the Coalition for a Better Future’s flagship Scorecard project, Telfer gathers and analyzes data from various sources to track Canada’s progress on 21 key economic, social and environmental indicators. Measuring where our country is doing well – and where we are falling behind – helps meet the Coalition’s key objective of helping policymakers, businesses and all citizens build a nation that is winning globally, growing sustainably and living better.

Brutus said that goal directly aligns with Telfer’s strategic vision for enhancing prosperity by building “Business for a Better Canada.”

“We define it as a Canada that’s greener, healthier, happier and wealthier. So if you look at what both organizations want to do, it’s almost a perfect match,” he said, adding that the “public relations powerhouse” of the Coalition co-chairs, input from members and the university providing unbiased evidence is a winning combination. 

New Scorecard results will be released on March 19 at an event in Ottawa with Coalition co-chairs Anne McLellan and Lisa Raitt.

Brutus said data used in the analysis is drawn from various Canadian and international sources, including Statistics Canada, OECD and the World Bank. This collated information based on 21 internationally recognized metrics is the foundation for stimulating the national conversation.

“We have no angle on this. We’re looking at data and we don’t interpret it. We provide it as it is, and I believe that it cuts to the role of universities; it’s what we do. We’re an evidence-based organization.”

Stéphane Brutus, Dean, University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management

Brutus said Telfer provides what only a university can truly provide: objectivity. 

“We have no angle on this. We’re looking at data and we don’t interpret it. We provide it as it is, and I believe that it cuts to the role of universities; it’s what we do. We’re an evidence-based organization,” he said.

Politicians can look at the results and debate policies they think will help to move the needle, but there is no room to challenge the actual numbers because they’re already triple validated, Brutus said.

Two professors and two PhD students work on the Scorecard project, a labour-intensive but rewarding experience for academics who aspire to have their research make a real impact on society.

It’s an opportunity for younger academics’ work to be discussed and scrutinized but also be influential in the national conversation about Canada’s future.

“It’s a way to make them realize that their work matters, and gives them some confidence that they can make a difference in society. So what they get out of it is tremendous: motivation and tremendous exposure,” Brutus said.

In a world of intense polarization and where even basic facts are questioned, providing hard data and objective facts is crucial, Brutus said. Findings to date have been “interesting and shocking;” the data points out that we are actually lagging behind other countries in many key indicators.

“It’s not flattering, and it comes back to the use of data to provide Canadians with a more realistic sense of self-awareness,” Brutus said. “I think there is a sort of complacency in terms of who we are and how great we are on all these different metrics. When I look at the data, it’s kind of sobering.”

One example he cites is Canada’s spending on R&D, which significantly lags behind other peer countries. Brutus said our economy has relied on primary sectors like natural resources and we’ve neglected R&D at a time when the future is focused on innovation and finding new ways of doing things.

“Typical Canadians’ perception of Canada would be that we are very innovative and that we do things differently,” he said. “Well, not really.”

But it’s not all negative news: Canada’s use of renewable energy, for example, is well ahead of the pack.

Another positive is Canada’s success in closing the gap on the labour participation rate between Indigenous and non-Indigenous workers, including a growing percentage of Indigenous persons in management positions. It moved from two per cent in 2016 to 2.7 per cent in 2022 - what Brutus calls “a small but significant gain.”

Wadid Lamine, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Telfer School of Management, one of the two professors leading the two PhD students on the project, said the Scorecard process involves meticulously checking and cross-checking all information to ensure it is verified compared consistently from year to year. 

Politicians and the media can do what they want with the data; it is the researchers’ role to ensure the data is sound. Lamine said the methodical process they follow ensures reliability, quality and transparency of the data. 

He said it is rewarding for the researchers to see how that information can lead to the reorientation of public policies.

“There are a lot of advantages to working with the Coalition. For me personally and for my colleagues, it’s a great opportunity to make an impact and contribute to making Canada a stronger country and a better place to live,” he said. “We see this collaboration with the Coalition providing us with real-world contexts to apply to our knowledge, skills and methodology in research and to share it with other organizations.”

This year’s Scorecard includes a new section that compares rural versus urban area performance. Lamine calls it a “really big, big, big project” to calculate and aggregate the data, analyze it then present it in the form of tables, graphs and charts.

“It’s a very busy process,” he said. “But we are creating something that contributes to the life of every Canadian. That’s something that motivates us.”

“There are a lot of advantages to working with the Coalition. For me personally and for my colleagues, it’s a great opportunity to make an impact and contribute to making Canada a stronger country and a better place to live.”

Wadid Lamine, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of Ottawa, Telfer School of Management