Rebalancing priorities for Canada’s prosperity Report on Canada 3 - March 2006
Canadians need to rebalance our economic priorities and policies by investing more today to achieve our full economic potential and prosperity in the future. Canada has a widening prosperity gap with the United States. The key to closing this prosperity gap, the Institute argues, is higher productivity – the increased capability of Canadians to add more value to the physical, human, and capital resources in the nation. But to achieve this, Canadians need to shift from the “consume today” path we’re on. We need to rebalance our priorities to “invest for tomorrow“, the path to increasing future prosperity.
The Institute shows that Canada’s prosperity ranks second in the world among countries with a third of Canada’s population or more. However, compared to the United States, we are less successful in creating an innovative and prosperous economy. In 2004, the gap in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita – the recognized measure of a country’s economic performance – was $8,700. This means that our GDP per capita was 18 percent lower than that in the United States. “Closing this prosperity gap would have real benefits for Canadian families,” said Martin. “On average, each family would gain $12,100 in disposable, after tax income – every year.” “And closing this gap is not an unrealistic aspiration. As recently as 1981 our prosperity gap was less than half the current gap,” added Martin.
