Business Council Salutes new Youth Initiative

May 22, 1997

Canada’s business leaders recognize that prolonged high unemployment among young people is a danger both to the country’s social fabric and to the competitiveness of Canadian companies in a global information-based economy.

The Business Council on National Issues (BCNI) supports fully the formation this week of the Corporate Council on Youth in the Economy to help like-minded companies examine how they can be more effective in addressing both urgent problems and the longer-term factors that affect the ability of young people to find work and build meaningful careers.

“Innovative partnerships are already flourishing in many communities, but we need better evaluation of what really works, so that we can spread the best practices,” said BCNI President and Chief Executive Thomas d’Aquino. “The Corporate Council on Youth in the Economy will provide an important forum for small, medium-sized and large companies to share research and ideas and to draw on the knowledge and insight of students, educators, government officials and community leaders.”

The Business Council on National Issues is a non-profit, non-partisan organization composed of 150 chief executives of leading Canadian corporations. Member companies administer in excess of $1.6 trillion in assets and have an annual turnover of about $500 billion, and are responsible for a large majority of Canada’s private-sector investment, exports, training, and research and development.