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June 16, 2011

In the race to improve productivity and household incomes, winners and losers emerge among the Canadian provinces, according to a report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In Lagging Behind: Productivity and the Good Fortune of Canadian Provinces author Serge Coulombe says growing labour productivity is the most important determinant of future economic welfare and, on that measure, Canada is falling behind its major trading partners. In the winners’ category, Newfoundland and Labrador saw the largest improvement in its productivity because the province moved away from a low-productivity natural resource business, fishing, to a higher-productivity natural resource activity, oil extraction, and it recorded the largest improvement in human capital.