Despite 30 years of government policy reforms and new incentives, Canadian productivity still isn’t growing as fast as it is in the U.S. and many other countries.
Canada’s output per worker was 78% that of the U.S. in 2011.
Canada’s 0.7% annualized labour productivity growth (2001–09) puts us in the bottom quartile of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
An average U.S. worker generates $13 more per hour than an average Canadian worker. An average Norwegian worker generates $29 more per hour.
Please invest some of your time to get a better understanding of productivity in Canada through this recent study by Deloitte (24 pages):
http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-Canada/Local%20Assets/Documents/Insights/ca_en_future_of_productivity_2013_report.pdf
Well worth reading.
Prior - It would have been easier and faster to simply write "I agree with you".
Fewer words, easier to read and, at the end of the day, we basically agree on the subject! 🙂
This "productivity" issue has long been a problem in Canada.
Just my opinion, I think the core reason for it (historically and into the present) is our resource-based economy.
The fact that we can just dig in the ground or harvest trees, etc., turns out to be a disadvantage, as it requires less know-how, less ingenuity and less creativity to generate wealth than what some countries have to go through to generate wealth basically out of nothing.
Couple this with the tendancy of Canadian, U.S. and other corporations and businesses to take the easy way out and substitute "buying in Asia" for actually doing anything worthwhile in order to create know-how or make a profit, and you can see why our productivity is slow to grow.
This has absolutely nothing to do with unions, wages, "work-ethic" (lol) benefits, etc.
The reason why U.S. productivity is higher than Canadian is because they have more of a risk-taking and competitive business culture compared to Canada's - resulting in innovation - where our businesses frequently strive to play it safe and seek ways to buy out or force out competition and live off sweetheart insider deals struck in non-competitive environments.
Don't even get me started on the four major pharmaceutical research labs that closed in Montreal in 2012 alone. The devious machinations of the global pharmaceutical cartels are beyond the scope of even my eagle eye... 
Before calling it a day I thought I would look in. Very astute observations. I agree with everything you said.
You will however probably get disagreement about the following:
Couple this with the tendancy of Canadian, U.S. and other corporations and businesses to take the easy way out and substitute "buying in Asia" for actually doing anything worthwhile in order to create know-how or make a profit, and you can see why our productivity is slow to grow.
This has absolutely nothing to do with unions, wages, "work-ethic" (lol) benefits, etc.
I think it actually does have to do with unions, wages etc. Specifically corporations and businesses are greedy and have found slaves in other parts of the world who will work for so little that even with transportation costs of great distances........they can still make more money. At one time the wealthy brought slaves to N. America, or they hired the poorest and desperate to do work for the least amount of money....but that cost money to keep the slaves and the poor of society started to stand up for themselves and say they were actually worth something! So with this new age the 'slaves' and the 'poor' and the 'desperate' can be found in other countries and the wealthy can keep clean hands. Ask them why they don't pay more and they will say "well we are giving them what they never had and what do you want them to have no work at all"?? Reminds me of the story about the rich man in his limo driving down the street. He saw a family of poor starving people eating weeds and scrub grass on the side of the road. The wealthy man told his driver to pull over and he said to the people "oh my god, you people need help, get in my car and I will take you home with me". The family were very grateful that they were in a limo and heading to the mansion of the rich man. The little daughter said "thank you sir for helping us", and the rich man replied..."that's ok, I have lots of good grass on my front lawn".
Breaking News;
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canada-s-gdp-grew-at-0-1-per-cent-in-april-statistics-canada-1.1345476
"...real gross domestic product increased 0.1 per cent in April..."
The GDP can be a complicated thing to decipher........one of the reasons it is often done by economists. I'm the first to admit I don't get into stats and figures like this. I think it is often more fodder for the people who gamble at the stock market.
I guess I am just a bit in the stone age where I know how the economy is doing by what people are saying and by how many store fronts are closed and or plants closing. At one time it was a bit easier to understand because people dealt in cash, but now with credit cards and lines of credit and other types of loans where people buy and buy and often put themselves into deep debt.......it can cloud the real picture. Bottom line.......I don't give these stats that the government puts out much credit.
