Canada’s economy: eight reasons to curb your enthusiasm

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Some interesting stats from the UN and OECD,

from the article at:
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1224829--canada-s-economy-eight-reasons-to-curb-your-enthusiasm-from-david-olive

• Business spending on R&D as a percent of GDP. Canada ranks a dismal 19th of the 34 OECD countries. Israel’s private sector, a traditional hot-bed of medical and industrial innovation, commits money to R&D at almost four times the rate of Canadian businesses.

• Venture capital investment as a percent of GDP. Here Canada ranks a mere 14th, trailing, among others, Austria, Ireland and Chile.

• Labour productivity growth rate. Canada ranked a miserable 21st last year, lagging Mexico, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia, among others.

• Portion of 2009 cohort attaining a master’s degree. Here we rank 22nd, or 9 per cent. Among those out-educating us in this Information Age are the U.S. (18 per cent), the Slovak Republic (22 per cent), and Poland (35 per cent).

• Income equality. Canada ranks a lowly 23rd among the 34 OECD countries. OECD-member countries with a narrower gap between rich and poor include our G-7 peers France and Germany; the five Scandinavian countries; the Netherlands; Hungary; Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

• Household debt-to-disposable income ratio. Among OECD nations, Canada ranks a middling 9th. The OECD member-countries with healthier household finances are Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Sweden, the U.S., Britain, and Portugal.

• Human Development Index. On this holistic measure of quality of life, calculated by the UN, Canada ranked 6th in 2011, trailing Norway, Australia, the Netherlands, the U.S. and New Zealand. When the latest HDI is adjusted for income inequality, Canada slips to 12th place, behind the Scandinavians, Australia, the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland and Slovenia.
(we were ranked #1 from 1994-2000)

• Infrastructure gap. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities puts the figure at $123 billion to repair or replace aging hospitals, water and power systems, roads and schools. That figure excludes federal and provincial infrastructure, and the cost of net additions to municipal facilities to match population growth.

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Off the top of my head I'd toss in these absent factors:
- Inflated housing market
- Reliance on oilsand development that is no sure thing, and subject boom-bust cycles
- Effect of Dutch disease as confirmed by a Conservative funded report
- Government spending sprees despite simultaneous austerity measures to social programs

I hope Harper is enjoying the rolling blackouts while he crows to his sycophants about how great our economy is. Meanwhile his party stampede's the rest of Canada off a cliff.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I feel for my friends and family up there. :^(

[shockedcanadian]

2. Some reasonable points...

Last edited Thu Jul 12, 2012, 01:36 PM - Edit history (1)

In particular your statements about R&D. I have stated for years that Canada cannot and will not compete in the "new" global economy if we don't address our reliance on "old world" methods of development. R&D is essential to an effective and competitive economy. Consider a nation such as Japan that converted themselves from an agrarian society into a technology powerhouse in only a few decades. They did so out of necessity, they needed to manufacture exportable products and they succeeded.

I do not begrudge our natural resources; they should be exploited to the fullest, but our strategy of rewarding mediocrity and avoiding the tough challenges of diversifying our economy is a recipe for disaster.

There are too many challenges that noone will address because it is not profitable to do so in the short term. The lifting is too heavy, the results will not immediately be seen.

[JBoy]

3. Not sure what to make of these metrics.

Canada's always sucked at R&D investment. Never been a real risk-taking nation.

Increasing income disparity is a concern.