Successful summit kicks off Canada’s Productivity Initiative – a year-long drive for practical solutions

The various challenges around Canada’s increasingly poor levels of productivity and the threat they pose to our quality of life were front and centre at Canada’s Productivity Summit. 

A sense of urgency to take on a long-standing economic problem for Canada was obvious among the almost 800 delegates and subject-matter experts from business, government, and academia from across the country at the summit at the BMO Centre Oct. 16-17. 

It was also clear there’s no quick fix to this worsening problem. 

To achieve meaningful impacts for business and governments, the two-day summit hosted by the School of Public Policy, supported by the Government of Alberta, will evolve to become a year-long national undertaking now known as Canada’s Productivity Initiative.

“We will build off the momentum of the summit to take this initiative across Canada and work with governments and businesses to finally come up with practical ways to address our declining productivity,” said Martha Hall Findlay, director of the School of Public Policy. 

One of the challenges around productivity, or a crisis in productivity, is that it’s difficult to define. 

Increasing productivity isn’t simply about working harder. It’s about finding ways so people can create more value when they are at work. 

Productivity essentially equates to prosperity. Greater productivity generates more wealth. Declining productivity leads to a lower standard of living, on everything from earning power to the quality of government services — including health and education. Long-term declines in productivity erode our ability to address societal challenges.

The reasons for Canada’s declining labour productivity compared with our peer countries in recent decades have been well documented. They include limited business innovation, lacklustre capital investment, interprovincial trade barriers, and inefficient tax and regulatory systems.

A briefing paper titled Productivity Growth in Canada: What is Going On? was released by the School of Public Policy in advance of the summit. It urges Canada to embrace comprehensive policy changes — from easing regulatory burdens to fostering competition and boosting investment.

Dr. Trevor Tombe, PhD, who developed the summit’s program and was announced as drector of the new Centre for Economic Growth and Prosperity at the School of Public Policy, cited faster approvals for industrial projects and eliminating interprovincial trade barriers as two obvious levers governments could pull to increase productivity.

Universities also have a crucial role to play driving enhanced productivity, said Dr. Ed McCauley, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Calgary, as he opened the summit. 

“I’ve been fascinated by the role that universities and post-secondary systems can play in promoting economic prosperity and a high quality of life,” McCauley said in remarks to delegates. “What I’d like to do is to encourage you when you are thinking about the solutions emerging from this summit to think about how strengthened post-secondary systems and interactions with industrial sectors in Canada can help to close that productivity gap.”

Hall Findlay explained Why Calgary is well positioned to convene a national conversation on prosperity in an op-ed on the summit for the Calgary Herald but said the next step is to get out on the road to share the findings from the two days with governments and business across the country, and engage in how to implement solutions.

“As Canada’s entrepreneurial university, we have a role to play in taking the lead in bringing people together to resolve this challenge,” she said.

Chancellor Emerita Deborah Yedlin, the president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, told delegates Canada’s Productivity Initiative reflects the School of Public Policy not waiting for change but embracing the university’s call to start something to make change.

If you wish to view the session recordings from Canada's Productivity Summit, see the Summit playlist on YouTube.