The COVID-19 pandemic has catapulted the digitization of society.

Articles

Steve Orsini – Distinguished Fellow, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy
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One key difference between the 2008 and 2020 global economic crises, excluding the tragic loss of life from COVID-19, is the rapid digital adoption in 2020 that is transforming all facets of life. The COVID-19 pandemic has catapulted the digitization of society more than ever before.

While the digital economy was expanding before the pandemic, virtually everything has gone digital thereafter. Health care, education, the courts, shopping, the arts and social interactions all transformed overnight. As these changes continue to proliferate, society will need to create the supporting policies, institutions, infrastructure and oversight to support a digital economy. At the same time, it will also need to address the digital economy’s potentially adverse effects, where workers become more precarious, global tech giants become more dominant and the digital divide becomes more imbalanced.

Critical to Canada’s success will be an all-of-government approach to fostering an innovative ecosystem – idea creation, commercialization, diffusion and adoption, synergistic spinoffs, reinvesting downstream benefits at home – and providing the necessary support systems – advanced education, leading-edge R&D, universal broadband and 5G, supercomputing powered by AI and big data, data governance and privacy protocols, removal of regulatory barriers and rent-seeking protections, and a competitive taxation and fiscal regime for intellectual property. History shows that creating inclusive institutions promotes entrepreneurship and economic growth that can foster greater innovation and a more socially cohesive society.

Without an innovative ecosystem, Canada’s ability to compete internationally, shrink its growing debt and provide for a more caring and inclusive society will become much more difficult to achieve. Just like the major tax reforms that were needed after the 2008 recession to strengthen Canada’s competitiveness at a critical time, major reforms are urgently needed in the post-COVID-19 world for Canada to become a more innovative, inclusive and interconnected society.