Sunil Johal is Policy Director at the Mowat Centre, an independent public policy think tank at the University of Toronto. He leads the Centre’s research activities, manages the research team and teaches a variety of executive education courses. He is frequently invited to advise governments and international organizations about disruptive technologies and regulatory and policy issues. He has authored numerous influential policy reports on a range of social, economic and regulatory topics.

In February 2019, he was named Chair of the Expert Panel on Modern Labour Standards by the federal Minister of Labour. The panel is mandated to examine and provide advice on five issues related to the changing nature of work, including a federal minimum wage, labour standards protections for non-standard workers and collective voice for non-unionized workers.

Before joining the University of Toronto in 2012, Sunil was a Director with the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation where he led the government’s efforts to modernize its regulatory environment. He has also held senior executive and policy roles with the Cabinet Office, Ministries of Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs and federal Treasury Board Secretariat. He joined the federal civil service through the Recruitment of Policy Leaders initiative in 2003.

Sunil is regularly asked to speak about the future of work, technology and social policy at conferences in Canada and abroad. He has contributed expert commentary and advice on policy issues to a range of organizations and media outlets, including the G-20, World Economic Forum, Brookings Institution, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, CBC Radio and Television, CTV News, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Maclean’s, Ottawa Citizen, the National Governors Association, Policy Options, TVO, the OECD, senior elected and bureaucratic officials from all three levels of government in Canada and many domestic and international private sector firms from the banking, real estate, oil and gas, technology and retail sectors.

He is a member of Service Canada’s Service Advisory Committee, the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Future of Work in the Global South initiative, the Climate Blueprints Advisory Committee of the Metcalf Foundation; and has also served in an advisory capacity on projects for a range of organizations, including the Brookfield Institute, Employment and Social Development Canada and Public Policy Forum. He has been a member of the board of directors of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council since 2015.

Sunil has been a lecturer with Ryerson University’s Department of Politics and Public Administration since 2009, and has taught executive education courses on change management, public policy and disruptive technologies to senior public sector officials from countries including Canada, Bangladesh, the Ukraine, China and Russia. He holds degrees from the London School of Economics, Osgoode Hall Law School and the University of Western Ontario.

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