Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s top economic advisor is warning Canada is ill prepared for the impact automation will have on Canada’s labour force.

In an interview on BNN, Dominic Barton, the chair of Morneau’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth, reiterated his prediction that at least 12 per cent of the workforce could face job losses by 2030 as a result of increased automation.

“We’re talking two million people [at risk]. So we’ve got to re-skill those people to make sure they get good jobs -- and that doesn’t include people who still have jobs but will have to re-skill,” he said. “This is a humongous issue that’s coming at us.”

Barton said he expects Canada will have to spend an additional $15 billion a year in order to properly train workers capable of thriving in an increasingly autonomous world, but said it’s not all up to the government to make it happen.

“We need to establish a Canada lifelong learning fund, almost like the equivalent of a pension fund -- but for learning,” he said. “It’s going to have to be a combination of individuals, businesses and government putting the money in and the incentives to do that.”

Barton said some progress has been made, but Canada needs to do more to build a “third pillar” of jobs training to complement the formal education system and jobs training provided to unemployed Canadians.

“We need a third pillar, which is reskilling adults. We don’t have that,” he said. “There’s some things the government’s been doing on that, which is great, but they’re baby steps. We need to scale that.”