The Retooling Challenge: Canada’s Struggle to Close the Capital Investment Gap

Robust business investment in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador continues to outstrip the poor performances of other provinces, according to a report released today by the C.D. Howe Institute. In “The Retooling Challenge: Canada’s Struggle to Close the Capital Investment Gap,” authors Colin Busby and William B.P. Robson find that new capital spending on tools for Canadian workers, in the form of machinery, equipment or buildings, still lags that in the United States and other major developed countries. While Canada narrowed the gap in the late 2000s, preliminary figures for 2010 and 2011 suggest that Canada is slipping again. Considering the outsized contributions of the three resource-based provinces to the national performance, other provinces clearly need to raise their game.