Globe and Mail: Immigrants vital to innovation: RBC chief

Richard Blackwell

New immigrants will play a vital role in creating a culture of innovation in Canada, the head of the country’s biggest bank says. Speaking at a conference on innovation Thursday, Royal Bank of Canada president Gordon Nixon said newcomers are “one of Canada’s great competitive advantages,” along with our resource base and the country’s location next to the largest market in the world. “This is a country that to a large degree has been built by newcomers willing to take risks” he said, and those attitudes should now help Canada shift to a culture of innovation at a time when many established executives are complacent and risk-averse. Other speakers at the conference, held at the MaRS centre in Toronto agreed that welcoming more immigrants is key to making Canada more competitive.

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Read Gordon Nixon’s speech.

Reference: Globe and Mail