Canada’s biggest economic problem has a name that sounds like an accusation you’re not pulling your weight.
Politicians prefer to address our economic challenges in a micro sort of way – a policy on housing, on dental care or grocery costs. Improving productivity helps affordability across the board, but it’s an abstract concept that seems tone deaf in these emotional times. In reality, productivity is the one economic problem that rules them all.
“If you have your business thinking about making a significant investment, you want to be able to project how much it’s going to cost and how long it’s going to take,” he said. “And that’s more difficult to do in Canada than other parts of the world.” The underlying trend here is that our productivity has been slipping. According to RBC, Canada has fallen from the sixth most productive economy in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1970 to 18th in 2022.
There’s too much catastrophizing these days about money, the economy, the country and so on. Not everything is broken.