Fragile Growth: An urgent need to get the basics right
2024 Scorecard Report
Executive Summary
Download the 2024 Scorecard Report
In last year’s report, we expressed concern about persistent economic weakness that was threatening to undermine our future prosperity. We called for urgency from policymakers.
A year on, our worries are only more heightened.
On the critical measures of living standards – output per capita and labour productivity – we’re moving in the wrong direction. Canada’s productivity record has been dismal. We’re experiencing the largest decline in productivity outside of a recession since the 1950s.
Our businesses will be less competitive if we are less productive. And if our businesses are not competitive, they will have a diminished ability to pay higher wages.
Amid higher interest rates and inflation, it’s particularly affecting the young and more marginalized workers, such as immigrants and racialized Canadians.
Our path to a green energy transition is unclear.
But it’s not all bleak. There’s plenty to celebrate.
Incomes and wages have recovered from the pandemic, and Canada’s economy has been doing better than just about anyone expected in the face of higher borrowing costs. This is a sign of resilience.
Let’s also not forget that we are fortunate to have relative stability in a world of turmoil. But that’s all the more reason not to take anything for granted.
Canada’s housing crisis poses additional constraints on economic growth. For example, it limits our ability to take advantage of immigration to drive our economy forward.
This is all coming at a perilous time for all economies around the world.
All these factors underscore the urgent need to get the basics right. We can’t underestimate the task at hand.
Economic growth is not an abstract concept only discussed in boardrooms and political circles. It’s the driving force that ensures we can put food on our tables, go to work, take care of our children and seniors and those most vulnerable, and ensure the air we breathe is clean.
It is more urgent than ever to make economic growth the top policy priority.
