There’s no alarm bell ringing – yet – for Canada’s economic emergency
Welcome to Ontario, Canada’s Alabama. That’s not much of a marketing slogan, but it does capture the stakes of the massive productivity problem plaguing not just the province, but the entire country.
Or to look at the productivity challenge from a different perspective: labour productivity – output per hour worked – has declined for the past four quarters, erasing a half-decade of gains. That woeful performance, continued long enough, is a path to national decline, much diminished living standards, and huge pressure to slash social programs. Ontario might not look like Alabama, right now, but that’s where it, and the rest of the country, is headed.
What might such a plan look like? For a start, the productivity problem needs to be framed in less abstract terms, namely – do Canadians want a low-wage or high-wage economy for themselves and their children? At a minimum, such an approach would make it clear what higher taxes and increased regulation cost Canadians. It might even prove to be a disincentive for governments entranced by virtue signalling moves that nibble away at growth.
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