A. Charles Baillie, chairman and CEO of TD Bank Financial Group has been was presented with the 2002 Office for Partnerships for Advanced Skills Visionary Award. OPAS is a partnership of all Ontario universities and leading Canadian companies, dedicated to advancing industry and university partnerships.

In his address, entitled From Vision to Reality – Our Country, Your Future, Baillie discussed the critical need for Canada to improve its standard of living. He cautioned his listeners not be lulled into a false sense of security. “You need only look at our cities’ crumbling sewers, overburdened transit systems and rising homelessness levels to see how thin the veneer of quality really is.”

“If we want to keep head offices in Canada,” said Baillie, “we need to have a better educated, more productive workforce.”

He also stressed the need for more partnership between academia and business. “The Office for Partnerships for Advanced Skills is to be congratulated for doing precisely that, but we still have a long way to go.”

This was the 6th annual Visionary Seminar, organized by the OPAS to provide a forum for industry representatives, university faculty and students to join together to discuss a vision of the future.