Is Canada On The Right Economic and Business Track?

Curious to know how Canada is doing in areas like competitiveness, productivity, rethinking the workforce, international trade, foreign relations, resources and how it treats its cities?

If you said yes to one or all of these you're in luck. Read here a report and review prepared by The Canada Project as found in the Conference Board of Canada elibrary.

The part I was particularly interested in was with regards to creating a single Canadian market. No progress was made on this front:

"The Alberta and British Columbia governments continue to work toward full implementation of their Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA), and the federal government has indicated its willingness to cooperate with other provinces to extend the TILMA framework. However, prior to the recent Saskatchewan provincial election—and in the face of fierce union opposition to such agreements—the Saskatchewan government decided not to join the TILMA. Ontario’s brief interest in pursuing TILMA arrangements seems to have faded away, although Ontario and Quebec continue to discuss bilateral barriers (for instance, to labour mobility)."

As a whole, the progress report reveals that on average, Canada's performance can be summarized in one word: mediocre. Or as The Canada Project puts it: sobering. The only areas that can be characterized as above average were in rethinking the workforce and renewing the urban infrastructure.

In urban infrastructure: "Finally, any effective plan to renew municipal infrastructure
will require fixing the governance and executionfailures in the management of infrastructure by provincial and municipal governments and private contractors, as detailed in the report of Quebec’s Johnson commission of inquiry into the collapse of the Laval overpass."

In immigrant settling programs (under rethinking the workforce) some interesting plans are in place:

"Maple Leaf Foods in Brandon, Manitoba, serves as a notable example of firm-level settlement and social integration support. Maple Leaf made arrangements to rent apartments for foreign workers, and negotiated with the city to change bus routes to ensure that foreign workers have access to public transportation to get to and from work. Community organizations also assist immigrants in Brandon. For example, community volunteers there put on free, week-long summer camps to help children of immigrants practise their English language skills so they can make more seamless transitions into the school system."

Though social cohesion remains troublesome in Toronto: "Three reports published in 2007 highlighted the extent of the social cohesion challenge in Toronto. The United Way’s Losing Ground documented growing income inequality across the city: close to 30 per cent of families live in poverty, a statistic that rises to 50 per cent for single-parent families. The University of Toronto study The Three Cities Within Toronto also underscored the fact that one of Canada’s richest cities has become one of the most divided, with more than a third of its neighbourhoods classified as poor. Meanwhile, the Conference Board’s report City Magnets: Benchmarking the Attractiveness of Canada’s CMAs noted the troubling income disparity between immigrant and non-immigrant residents. Given the growing awareness of the importance of attracting talent for urban economic prosperity, and as more evidence comes to light on urban divides, pressure for action should intensify on this issue."

In trade, Canada is marked by contradictions: "Regarding Canada’s role in multilateral trade negotiations—particularly concerning the leadership it should be showing at the WTO—the past year has seen no progress at revitalizing the Doha Round of negotiations and no change to Canada’s approach on the international stage. Even as Canada argues that other countries should open their markets by removing tariffs, non-tariff barriers, and subsidies in sectors like agriculture, it continues to insist on protectionist measures for its own agricultural sector (in dairy, poultry, and eggs, for example). This fundamental inconsistency must be resolved if Canada is to restore its credentials as an international leader on trade issues."

Keep in mind, the study only covers a one year span.