Matthew Lau: Liberals' productivity 'working group' shows why Canada isn't producing
Canada’s dismal economic productivity is a crisis, and the Trudeau government’s “solution” of creating a new federal working group to investigate its cause, announced recently by Treasury Board President Anita Anand, is a joke. That is the view, not just of Conservative MPs and libertarian columnists, but also of an iPolitics article Anand herself posted on social media to share the news she was creating this working group.
The article, which cites Carleton University economics professor Vivek Dehejia, suggests Canada’s crisis-level productivity is rooted in unfavourable economic structures that limit competition and discourage investment, including by means of federal monopolies. “We know the causes of this problem,” Dehejia said. “As for (the government’s) proposed solution to create a working group to investigate it, I find that quite laughable. I actually find it quite sad that they feel the need to create a working group on something that I teach my first-year students.” So there you have it: the federal working group isn’t just a joke, it’s a sad joke.
A spokesperson for Anand says the working group will be made up of “public and private sector representatives, academics, and union members,” which makes it even more laughable. Asking civil servants and unions how to increase economic productivity is like asking the Toronto Maple Leafs how to win a playoff series. On the other hand, at least the Leafs have done that once in the past 20 years — which is a higher success rate than the public sector and labour unions have enjoyed in increasing economic productivity.
To understand how the Trudeau government flattened Canada’s economic productivity, consider its economic development strategy. The federal working group
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