[3] After a deep program review in 2012-13, the foundation focused on three critical research areas: human capital, natural resources and trade and investment.

Through its three centres, it looks for practical solutions to the challenges facing western Canada, including getting products to markets around the world, building a stronger, more versatile workforce, and finding ways to build public support for the region's key natural resource industries: forestry, agri-food, mining, and oil and natural gas.

Founding members include George Maxwell Bell (1912-1972), Arthur Child (1910-1996),[notes 1] Frederick C. Mannix (1913-) and Honourable James A. Richardson.

In this capacity, he acted as a witness in federal parliamentary committees on Finance, advocating for zero deficit and cut-off income limits for social welfare funding.

"[12] some within the Canada West Foundation believed that Roberts himself was partly sympathetic to separatism; he never became affiliated with the movement, but was forced to step down as CWF President in December 1980 after some controversial statements on the subject.

According to journalist Norm Ovenden, under Roberts' presidency, by 1980, the Canada West Foundation had become a "powerhouse", a "prestige organization in just a decade.

"[3] Ovenden credits Roberts with transforming a "low-key research organization" into a "well-known, widely respected pulse-takers of the Canadian west" in four years.

[16] Roger Gibbins, chairman and head of the political science department at the University of Calgary, served as president and CEO of the Canada West Foundation from 1999 until his retirement in June 2012.

[17] Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Newfoundland, despite much smaller populations than the West, had a combined 30 seats.

"[26] In 2000, the CWF published a report entitled A Roof Over Our Heads: Affordable Housing and Urban Growth in Western Canada.