Editor:
I note that a team of candidates for Delta council proposes to create an economic development office. Such an office should adopt a broader view of its role than the traditional one.
There are two challenges that it should address from the start. The first is the impact the rapid application of artificial intelligence will have on unskilled, skilled and professional work. A report titled Modelling the Impact of AI on the World Economy from the management consulting firm McKinsey predicts a massive transformation of the workplace within five years.
The second challenge is that posed by acceleration of climate change to our well-being such as rising sea levels -- a challenge that for Delta should be a constant concern.
These and other emerging challenges will require, in the words of the World Economic Forum’s latest Future of Jobs report, unprecedented levels of “creativity, initiative, resilience, flexibility and complex problem-solving.”
This will require a citizenry possessing the conceptual and skill flexibility to transform these challenges into opportunities that enhance well-being. There must be, according to the report, “a shift in skills and expertise from a know-it-all to a learn-it all approach.”
How to attain this end? The United Nations sponsors a Learning Communities Network which seeks to harness community learning resources, both formal and informal. If Delta became a Learning Community, a priority should be to tap the talents of an aging population to promote life-long learning.
Another priority should be to expand the breadth and depth of after-school programming complementing school learning to nurture within children and youth a love of learning. An overriding goal of a Learning Community must be to encourage collaborative efforts to design a variety of learning opportunities leading to widespread participation of all age groups at every stage of life.
In short, the goal of an economic development office should be to create a community-based learning culture that nurtures “creativity, initiative, resilience, flexibility and complex problem-solving.”
Frank Frigon
