Philip Cross: Bank of Canada's Carolyn Rogers is right. Weak productivity is a national crisis

The one sure way to kill the Canadian experiment is to let living standards lag those in the U.S. so our best and brightest move south

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A consensus is emerging that Canada’s chronically slow economic growth and weak productivity constitute a national crisis. Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers last week called lagging productivity “an emergency,” saying “it’s time to break the glass.” With real GDP growth in the past decade the weakest since the 1930s and with real per capita GDP languishing at 2014 levels, it’s hard to avoid that conclusion.

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Concern about Canada’s flagging growth is not new. The Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce warned in 2018 that Canada was “falling behind” as the U.S. climbed from seventh most competitive economy in the world to second in just five years, while Canada remained mired in 14th place. In 2021, former cabinet ministers Lisa Raitt (a Conservative) and Anne McLellan (a Liberal) formed the bipartisan Coalition for a Better Future to support the need for........

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