From: William B.P. Robson and Mawakina BafaleTo: Productivity observersDate: October 1, 2025Re: We Need to Get Going on Canada’s Four-Alarm Productivity Emergency Eighteen months ago, Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers declared Canada’s poor productivity a national emergency. Since then, things have gotten worse. Our living standards are slipping: output and incomes per Canadian […]
Prepared from remarks made at the C.D. Howe Institute and CIFAR Conference “Artificial Intelligence – Seizing Opportunities” held on May 27, 2025.  • Canada is a global leader in AI research, ranking second worldwide in top-tier researchers and first in the G7 for per capita academic AI papers. Yet adoption lags: in 2023, Canada […]
October 1, 2025 – Canada has world-class strength in AI research but continues to fall short in widespread adoption, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. On the heels of the federal government’s announcement of a new AI Strategy Task Force, the report highlights the urgent need to bridge the gap between […]
Published in Financial Post. Last week, the federal government ordered Canada Post to develop a transformation plan to put itself on a financially sustainable footing. It gave the Crown corporation a green light to trim and modernize its network, end most door-to-door delivery, expand community mailboxes and reduce delivery frequency and speed for non-priority items. […]
Published in The Globe and Mail. A trading nation, Canada lives next to what has long been a big welcoming market in a generally competitive free-trading world. That once free American market is fast being restricted by tariffs, for now made passably permeable by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which is likely to be made more U.S.-protectionist […]
Edited remarks delivered to the School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University, on September 5, 2025.  Introduction: Canada Faces Layers of Economic and Fiscal Challenges There is keen awareness that Canada faces a serious economic challenge – if not a crisis – emanating from the US tariff threat. A desperate attempt is being made to […]
September 4, 2025 – The US tariff threat has exposed the fragility of Canada’s economic model, built on deep reliance on its southern neighbour. But tariffs are only the latest shock. Woeful productivity growth, high public debt, and a tax system that discourages growth have been weighing on the Canadian economy for years, according to […]
From: Tasnim FarihaTo: Housing watchersDate: August 14, 2025Re: Ottawa’s Bold Prefab Housing Bet Needs System Reform to Deliver Prime Minister Mark Carney has wasted no time signaling that innovation will be central to his approach to solving Canada’s housing crisis. His government’s early commitment to modular and prefabricated housing – including the launch of the […]
Innovation fuels economic growth and underpins productivity, but Canadian businesses are less innovative than five years ago. Although small businesses are less likely to be innovative, larger businesses have seen bigger declines in innovation activity. Declines across all types of innovation for all business sizes is a very troubling trend. For more, see Unleashing Innovation: […]
From: Harvey NaglieTo: Banking observersDate: July 29, 2025Re: Canada Can’t Afford to Wait for Open Banking Canada is at risk of becoming the last G7 nation to implement open banking. The federal government has announced a launch target of early 2026. While this commitment is welcome, the timeline is far too slow – and the […]
Canadian firms that actively work to tackle innovation barriers, such as financial constraints or skills shortages, are significantly more likely to innovate than those that don’t act. Catherine Beaudry shows where the biggest gains come from for Canadian businesses.
July 24, 2025 – Canadian firms that actively work to tackle innovation barriers, such as financial constraints or skills shortages, are significantly more likely to innovate than those that don’t act, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Unleashing Innovation: Barriers, Government Support Programs, and What Works Best,” Catherine Beaudry shows […]
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From: William B.P. Robson and Mawakina BafaleTo: Productivity observersDate: October 1, 2025Re: We Need to Get Going on Canada’s Four-Alarm Productivity Emergency Eighteen months ago, Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers declared Canada’s poor productivity a national emergency. Since then, things have gotten worse. Our living standards are slipping: output and incomes per Canadian […] 
Prepared from remarks made at the C.D. Howe Institute and CIFAR Conference “Artificial Intelligence – Seizing Opportunities” held on May 27, 2025.  • Canada is a global leader in AI research, ranking second worldwide in top-tier researchers and first in the G7 for per capita academic AI papers. Yet adoption lags: in 2023, Canada […] 
Published in Financial Post. Last week, the federal government ordered Canada Post to develop a transformation plan to put itself on a financially sustainable footing. It gave the Crown corporation a green light to trim and modernize its network, end most door-to-door delivery, expand community mailboxes and reduce delivery frequency and speed for non-priority items. […] 
Published in The Globe and Mail. A trading nation, Canada lives next to what has long been a big welcoming market in a generally competitive free-trading world. That once free American market is fast being restricted by tariffs, for now made passably permeable by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which is likely to be made more U.S.-protectionist […] 
From: Tasnim FarihaTo: Housing watchersDate: August 14, 2025Re: Ottawa’s Bold Prefab Housing Bet Needs System Reform to Deliver Prime Minister Mark Carney has wasted no time signaling that innovation will be central to his approach to solving Canada’s housing crisis. His government’s early commitment to modular and prefabricated housing – including the launch of the […] 
Innovation fuels economic growth and underpins productivity, but Canadian businesses are less innovative than five years ago. Although small businesses are less likely to be innovative, larger businesses have seen bigger declines in innovation activity. Declines across all types of innovation for all business sizes is a very troubling trend. For more, see Unleashing Innovation: […] 
From: Harvey NaglieTo: Banking observersDate: July 29, 2025Re: Canada Can’t Afford to Wait for Open Banking Canada is at risk of becoming the last G7 nation to implement open banking. The federal government has announced a launch target of early 2026. While this commitment is welcome, the timeline is far too slow – and the […] 
Canadian firms that actively work to tackle innovation barriers, such as financial constraints or skills shortages, are significantly more likely to innovate than those that don’t act. Catherine Beaudry shows where the biggest gains come from for Canadian businesses.