Thank you, Chair and members of the committee, for the invitation to appear today as part of your pre-budget consultations for budget 2026.
Good morning. I'm very pleased to be here today to discuss budget 2026 with the committee.
My name is Dana Stephenson. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Riipen, a Canadian company founded in Vancouver that now operates globally. Riipen connects businesses with Canadian learners and emerging talent to complete real projects that build skills, create experience and address practical productivity challenges.
Since 2017, we have facilitated more than 361 learner experiences, worked with almost 50,000 employers and engaged over 900 post-secondary institutions and training organizations. Since 2021, Riipen's programs, including Level UP and FuturePath—which are supported through the federal government's innovative work-integrated learning investments—have helped turn this infrastructure into almost 45,000 paid work placements.
The businesses we work with are overwhelmingly small or micro-businesses, the backbone of Canada's economy. They want to modernize and adopt new technologies but often lack the talent, tools and implementation support to do it. That matters, because Canada is facing three challenges that are too often discussed separately. First, Canada has a serious productivity challenge. Second, many small and medium-sized businesses know they need to adopt AI and digital tools but lack the time, capacity or resources to move from interest to implementation. Third, too many Canadians are struggling to get the experience they need to launch or advance their careers.
Our experience suggests that these are not separate challenges. They are one connected economic problem. The missing piece is the implementation layer that connects talent to the businesses that need capacity, digital skills and practical support.
Canadian learners are eager to contribute. They include students, recent graduates and adults building new skills, but too often they face the familiar barrier of needing experience to get a job and needing a job to get experience. Work-integrated learning works best when it is designed as a pathway that creates value for both learners and employers. Learners need repeated and real work experiences that build capability over time. Employers need low-friction ways to engage talent first, and then deepen participation as business value and hiring potential grow.
When structured properly, emerging talent can help small businesses complete projects that otherwise would not happen, from market research and administrative automation to AI-enabled workflows. When structured properly, work-integrated learning becomes productivity infrastructure for the AI economy. It gives businesses practical capacity while giving Canadians the experience and proof they need to move forward.
Our program data shows that 85% of participating employers report increased productivity, and 76% of participants report receiving one or more job offers after completing their experience. That is the pathway we are asking the federal government to build through budget 2026.
Specifically, we recommend a five-year national applied AI and SME productivity work-integrated learning pathway. The objective is simple: help SMEs adopt practical AI and digital tools while creating paid, work-integrated learning opportunities for Canadian learners and emerging talent.
Canada does not need to build a new system from scratch. The opportunity is to create a strategic applied AI and SME productivity stream through proven federal infrastructure that already exists within programs like I-WIL and the student work placement program. This pathway would help employers define real AI and digital adoption projects, connect with emerging Canadian talent, and measure the business, learner and employment outcomes that matter most. Over time, it could support greater employer and partner co-investment, helping public dollars go further while maintaining access for learners and small businesses.
Canada has invested in physical infrastructure, research infrastructure and industrial capacity. Budget 2026 should also invest in the human infrastructure that helps ordinary businesses put technology to work for their day-to-day operations.
Canadians need opportunities to apply future skills in real business settings, build confidence, build networks and contribute to business productivity. By helping small businesses become more productive and Canadian learners gain meaningful experience, budget 2026 could strengthen competitiveness, build homegrown talent and generate stronger long-term economic growth. Work-integrated learning infrastructure should be central to Canada's AI and productivity agenda.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear today. I look forward to your questions.