Thank you for the question.
The most important factor—and really the only one that the Bank of Canada can provide—is an environment that keeps prices stable. By that I mean a predictable environment, with minimal uncertainty, so that businesses can plan ahead.
However, as I have already mentioned, the issue of productivity is very complex and varies from business to business. For example, how do we measure the productivity of a company whose scope is international? Do we measure only the Canadian part or all or it?
In Canada today, what Canadian businesses sell equals our exports. That is to say that there is a second Canadian economy in the world that is not directly included in the statistics. These are operations—including manufacturing—that are part of what businesses do and that are really very productive.
There is also research, development, management and so on in Canada that is very difficult to measure in terms of productivity. Is the productivity of a company like Bombardier Aerospace comparable to Boeing's, for example? Not really; it is like comparing apples to oranges. Comparison is not possible.
This is not to say that no gap exists. It does. The question deals with our long-term performance and it is a very complex one. I cannot answer it completely today.