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Business

Canada’s productivity and prosperity slump

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7 minute read

From Resource Works

“The U.S. is on track to produce nearly 50 percent more per person than Canada will. This stunning divergence is unprecedented in modern history.”

National productivity is key to our personal prosperity and standard of living—and we’re in trouble.

Canada’s productivity, a measure of our efficiency in producing goods and services, has been seriously slumping for years, and we are now one of the least productive G7 nations.

Now, business leaders say part of the solution could, and should, lie in producing natural resources and supercharging the resource sector.

The Royal Bank of Canada reports: “The Canadian economy has continued to underperform global peers. Declines in per-capita output in seven of the last eight quarters have left average income per person back at decade-ago levels, and the unemployment rate has risen more than in other advanced economies.

“Canada is not ‘officially’ in a recession… but per-capita gross domestic product and the unemployment rate are more representative of what individual households and workers are experiencing in the current economy, and on that basis, it certainly feels like one.”

Now, a new report by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce says a comprehensive national strategy is needed to promote resource investments.

“We really need to lean into our strengths as a country,” says report author Andrew DiCapua. “We are lucky to live in a country where we have abundant natural resources… We should be trying to find ways to attract investment to supercharge the sector.”

Senior economist DiCapua notes: “With Canada facing significant economic challenges—below-trend growth, declining living standards, regulatory uncertainty, and weak business investment—the Canadian economy is not keeping pace.

“The main recommendation here is to create regulations and policies that provide regulatory certainty—or rather clarity—so that investment can be attracted into this crucial (natural-resource) sector.”

The national business group says the new approach should include streamlining government regulations, recognizing the need for timely approval of major projects, and ensuring policy stability.

It also recommends speeding up the delivery of investment tax credits for projects that cut emissions and adopting a trade infrastructure plan to ensure the country has sufficient roads, ports, and energy transmission lines for accessing resources in remote areas.

The Chamber notes that the natural-resources sector is the second-largest in Canada, paying compensation last year that was $25,000 more than the national average.

“The sector can do this because of its productivity prowess, which is closely linked to the country’s prosperity and long-term standard of living. This is why increasing investment in high-productivity sectors, particularly within natural resources, is an obvious remedy to our productivity challenges.”

And it adds: “Given the natural resources sector’s higher-than-average Indigenous workforce participation, higher wage opportunities can help increase Indigenous employment and economic participation, furthering economic reconciliation efforts by supporting Indigenous-owned businesses, equity partnerships, and employment.”

Economists, business leaders, and the Bank of Canada have highlighted the country’s productivity woes for years—and the level of concern is growing.

As TD Economics pointed out in a worrisome report: “Canadians’ standard of living, as measured by real GDP per person, was lower in 2023 than in 2014.

“Without improved productivity growth, workers will face stagnating wages, and government revenues will not keep pace with spending commitments, requiring higher taxes or reduced public services.”

And: “Over the decade prior to the pandemic, business sector productivity grew at a respectable rate of 1.2% annually. Since 2019, it has ceased to expand at all, setting Canada apart as one of the worst-performing advanced economies, not to mention in stark contrast to the United States…

“The woes are widespread. Relative to growth in the decade prior to the pandemic, only a few service industries have managed to improve their performance… To get the same output, it now requires more hours from workers. Hard to believe this could occur in a digital age.”

Economist Trevor Tombe of the University of Calgary states: “The gap between the Canadian and American economies has now reached its widest point in nearly a century.

“If this continues, we’ll not have persistently seen this wide of a gap since the days of John A. Macdonald… Taking bolder action to address this growing prosperity gap is needed. And fast.

“The U.S. is on track to produce nearly 50 percent more per person than Canada will. This stunning divergence is unprecedented in modern history.”

Earlier this year, Carolyn Rogers, senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, gave this warning on our productivity: “You’ve seen those signs that say, ‘In emergency, break glass.’ Well, it’s time to break the glass.”

Rogers said in a Halifax speech: “An economy with low productivity can grow only so quickly before inflation sets in. But an economy with strong productivity can have faster growth, more jobs, and higher wages with less risk of inflation…

“We thought productivity would improve coming out of the pandemic as firms found their footing and workers trained back up. We’ve seen that happen in the US economy, but it hasn’t happened here. In fact, the level of productivity in Canada’s business sector is more or less unchanged from where it was seven years ago.”

It’s beyond time for our federal and provincial governments to get in gear and take steps to help get our productivity back on track.

The Chamber of Commerce’s recommendations would be a good place to start: adopt sensible regulations and stable policies that encourage investment in our natural resources, and speed up the approval of major projects.

Business

EU Tightens Social Media Censorship Screw With Upcoming Mandatory “Disinformation” Rules

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From Reclaim The Net

By

This refers not only to spreading “fact-checking” across the EU member-countries but also to making VLOPs finance these groups. This, is despite the fact many of the most prominent “fact-checkers” have been consistently accused of fostering censorship instead of checking content for accuracy in an unbiased manner.

What started out as the EU’s “voluntary code of practice” concerning “disinformation” – affecting tech/social media companies – is now set to turn into a mandatory code of conduct for the most influential and widely-used ones.

The news was revealed by the Irish media regulator, specifically an official of its digital services, Paul Gordon, who spoke to journalists in Brussels. The EU Commission has yet to confirm that January will be the date when the current code will be “formalized” in this way.

The legislation that would enable the “transition” is the controversial Digital Services Act (DSA), which critics often refer to as the “EU online censorship law,” the enforcement of which started in February of this year.

The “voluntary” code is at this time signed by 44 tech companies, and should it become mandatory in January 2025, it will apply to those the EU defines as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) (with at least 45 million monthly active users in the 27-nation bloc).

Currently, the number of such platforms is said to be 25.

In its present form, the DSA’s provisions obligate online platforms to carry out “disinformation”-related risk assessments and reveal what measures they are taking to mitigate any risks revealed by these assessments.

But when the code switches from “voluntary” to mandatory, these obligations will also include other requirements: demonetizing the dissemination of “disinformation”; platforms, civil society groups, and fact-checkers “effectively cooperating” during elections, once again to address “disinformation” – and, “empowering” fact-checkers.

This refers not only to spreading “fact-checking” across the EU member-countries but also to making VLOPs finance these groups. This, is despite the fact many of the most prominent “fact-checkers” have been consistently accused of fostering censorship instead of checking content for accuracy in an unbiased manner.

The code was first introduced (in its “voluntary” form) in 2022, with Google, Meta, and TikTok among the prominent signatories – while these rules originate from a “strengthened” EU Code of Practice on Disinformation based on the Commission’s Guidance issued in May 2021.

“It is for the signatories to decide which commitments they sign up to and it is their responsibility to ensure the effectiveness of their commitments’ implementation,” the EU said at the time – that would have been the “voluntary” element, while the Commission said the time it had not “endorsed” the code.

It appears the EC is now about to “endorse” the code, and then some – there are active preparations to make it mandatory.

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Business

Premiers fight to lower gas taxes as Trudeau hikes pump costs

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From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

By Jay Goldberg 

Thirty-nine hundred dollars – that’s how much the typical two-car Ontario family is spending on gas taxes at the pump this year.

You read that right. That’s not the overall fuel bill. That’s just taxes.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau keeps increasing your gas bill, while Premier Doug Ford is lowering it.

Ford’s latest gas tax cut extension is music to taxpayers’ ears. Ford’s 6.4 cent per litre gas tax cut, temporarily introduced in July 2022, is here to stay until at least next June.

Because of the cut, a two-car family has saved more than $1,000 so far. And that’s welcome news for Ontario taxpayers, because Trudeau is planning yet another carbon tax hike next April.

Trudeau has raised the overall tax burden at the pumps every April for the past five years. Next spring, he plans to raise gas taxes by another three cents per litre, bringing the overall gas tax burden for Ontarians to almost 60 cents per litre.

While Trudeau keeps hiking costs for taxpayers at the pumps, premiers of all stripes have been stepping up to the plate to blunt the impact of his punitive carbon tax.

Obviously, Ford has stepped up to the plate and has lowered gas taxes. But he’s not alone.

In Manitoba, NDP Premier Wab Kinew fully suspended the province’s 14 cent per litre gas tax for a year. And in Newfoundland, Liberal Premier Andrew Furey cut the gas tax by 8.05 cents per litre for nearly two-and-a-half years.

It’s a tale of two approaches: the Trudeau government keeps making life more expensive at the pumps, while premiers of all stripes are fighting to get costs down.

Families still have to get to work, get the kids to school and make it to hockey practice. And they can’t afford increasingly high gas taxes. Common sense premiers seem to get it, while Ottawa has its head in the clouds.

When Ford announced his gas tax cut extension, he took aim at the Liberal carbon tax mandated by the Trudeau government in Ottawa.

Ford noted the carbon tax is set to rise to 20.9 cents per litre next April, “bumping up the cost of everything once again and it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

“Our government will always fight against it,” Ford said.

But there’s some good news for taxpayers: reprieve may be on the horizon.

Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s promises to axe the carbon tax as soon as he takes office.

With a federal election scheduled for next fall, the federal carbon tax’s days may very well be numbered.

Scrapping the carbon tax would make a huge difference in the lives of everyday Canadians.

Right now, the carbon tax costs 17.6 cents per litre. For a family filling up two cars once a week, that’s nearly $24 a week in carbon taxes at the pump.

Scrapping the carbon tax could save families more than $1,200 a year at the pumps. Plus, there would be savings on the cost of home heating, food, and virtually everything else.

While the Trudeau government likes to argue that the carbon tax rebates make up for all these additional costs, the Parliamentary Budget Officer says it’s not so.

The PBO has shown that the typical Ontario family will lose nearly $400 this year due to the carbon tax, even after the rebates.

That’s why premiers like Ford, Kinew and Furey have stepped up to the plate.

Canadians pay far too much at the pumps in taxes. While Trudeau hikes the carbon tax year after year, provincial leaders like Ford are keeping costs down and delivering meaningful relief for struggling families.

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