Canada’s Productivity Blueprint

The C.D. Howe Productivity Blueprint: At a Glance

Canada has a productivity problem. Productivity, the amount we produce for each hour worked, is the main source of rising incomes and living standards over time. Canada’s GDP per capita tracked that of the United States from 1994 to 2014, but has fallen behind both the US and other advanced economies since. Tariff threats and a more unpredictable world have made tackling this problem more urgent than ever.

The Productivity Blueprint is the C.D. Howe Institute’s answer. It brings decades of Institute research together into one agenda governments can act on. It:

• Shows how Canada performs against its peers on living standards, productivity, and business investment, and why productivity matters so much.
• Explains that there is no single fix, since productivity ultimately comes from three sources – capital deepening, human capital, and the efficiency with which both are used – each shaped by a different set of policy levers.
• Organizes government action into eight pillars built around those levers: tax, regulation, competition, human capital, innovation, business growth, trade, transportation, and supply chains, and fiscal policy and government productivity.
• Draws exclusively on C.D. Howe Institute research from the past decade or more across those eight areas to deliver more than 100 actionable recommendations for government.

The Productivity Blueprint will be updated as new work is published, giving policymakers a clear plan to tackle the barriers that keep Canada from reaching its massive potential.