A new report by Patrick Leblond, Associate Professor and CN-Paul M. Tellier Chair on Business and Public Policy in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at uOttawa, calls upon Canadian businesses and governments to rapidly digitalize Canada’s economy and join the world’s digital trade leaders.
Canada’s digital trade performance is below its economy’s capacity and remains too focused on the US, the report argues. Unless Canadian businesses and governments up their game, Canada will remain a marginal player in the global digital economy.
A clear and coherent Canadian digital trade strategy would rest on three pillars:
- Reliable and inclusive access to high-quality digital infrastructure at competitive prices internationally.
- Enhanced digital capacity through the adoption of well-established and advanced digital technologies, especially for SMEs, and the development of digital skills among Canadian workers, managers and entrepreneurs.
- The reduction, if not elimination, of non-tariff barriers to international digital trade.
View the full report A Digital Trade Strategy for Canada (PDF, 1.54 MB)