One of the premises of how we develop policy is that we have to engage stakeholders and communities, and we have to engage Canadians as well. This is nothing new. When we developed the innovation and skills plan, we had a long, thought-out consultation process to really understand where the gaps were, what the challenges were and where the opportunities were. Similar to developing policies going forward, economic policies, we put forward economic strategy tables.
The six areas were digital, clean resources, clean tech, health and bioscience, advanced manufacturing and agriculture. The reason why these were selected was that industry played a leadership role in determining that this was where the growth opportunities are, this is where we can see the economy going forward, where Canada is well positioned to succeed internationally as well. These strategy tables were comprised of people from those different sectors from a variety of backgrounds: experts, people who run businesses, people who advise businesses and Canadians from a consumer perspective as well. We covered all different aspects and came forward with a bunch of recommendations in these strategy tables.
Many of those recommendations were implemented in the previous two budgets, particularly the last budget and the fall economic update. For example, there was the capital cost allowance issue where we made it easier for businesses to write off the capital cost allowance so that they can compete with investments that were being made in other jurisdictions.
Work-integrated learning was a big issue that was presented in our budget where the private sector is stepping up as well.
The global skills strategy is an immigration pilot project that has become permanent based on their recommendations, because they want Canada to attract not only great Canadian talent but global talent as well.
The objective of this economic strategy table is to develop policy ideas with industry, businesses, with people who understand the real issues on the ground, and work with them to come forward with solutions that can see growth in the economy. I highlighted in my remarks that we have seen over one million jobs created by Canadians in the economy, and we want to continue to create conditions for Canadians to succeed going forward. The economic strategy tables create conditions for success. I've just highlighted some of the policy proposals that they put forward.