Province receives new report on economic innovation, to study recommendations

A new report says Manitoba should embrace new technology and artificial intelligence, or risk being left behind.

The provincial government has received a new report on how to ensure Manitoba’s economy remains strong in the twenty-first century, focused around growing the province’s technology sector.

The Innovation and Prosperity Report, officially launched on Friday at the RBC Convention Centre, was produced by a committee of data experts and local business leaders and provides advice on implementing emerging technologies in Manitoba.

Led by Jim Balsillie, the former co-CEO of Research in Motion, the Ontario-based technology company behind BlackBerry, the report puts forward several recommendations to ensure the province’s “economic resilience and competitiveness.”

These recommendations include establishing a framework that secures sovereign control of Manitoba’s data, AI, and compute infrastructure, as well as developing a provincial intellectual patent strategy.

“No matter what industry you’re in… AI, tech, it’s going to be in your industry,” Premier Wab Kinew told reporters on Friday. “The bottom line of what this message coming through here in the report today is we have to get in the game.”

The report says the global economy has been transformed over the past four decades from a system based on the production of tangible goods into “a new economy in which wealth, power and security are rooted in the ownership of intangible assets like intellectual property, data, and artificial intelligence.”

“Manitoba’s prosperity strategy must therefore focus on building and owning these assets, so their benefits are captured for the province’s economic, social and security interests,” reads the report.

Kinew said one of the challenges faced by the provincial government is figuring out how to “keep pace” in the tech era, speaking at the event alongside business leaders and the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce.

The 39-page document also calls for a bold infrastructure agenda, a structured feedback loop to align Manitoba’s workforce development with emerging economic realities and a consultation mechanism between industry and government.

“Manitoba doesn’t have to choose between its traditional, resource-based economy and the digital transformation,” says the report. “It can and should do both, ensuring that every innovation strengthens the foundation of good jobs and long-term security and prosperity for Manitoba.”

The provincial government, who commissioned the report, said it intends to study the recommendations.

The full Innovation and Prosperity Report can be read online.