Our Challenges

The approaches of the past have left a legacy of challenges that we must meet.

We face major demographic challenges, particularly with respect to youth migration, and must take action to attract and hold population. Past investments in learning have fallen short of fully developing the potential of our most important resource for an innovation-based economy – our people.

Compared to other provinces, we rank at or near the bottom on key measures of economic progress, including gross domestic product (GDP), exports per capita, productivity, and wage levels. As a result, Islanders have a growing income gap compared to other Canadians.

Our research and development (R&D) spending is narrowly concentrated in the federal and higher education sectors.

Major business and development failures have been a pervasive reality over the past decade, highlighting a need to bring greater discipline, strategic focus, transparency, and accountability to publicly funded projects and economic infrastructure.