We are concerned about Canada's productivity issues.
This is not an issue of the last quarter, the last year or even the last few years. It's a 20-year issue.
Canada's productivity growth has underperformed for about the last 20 years. If you look at how Canada has grown, you will see that this country has actually done a very good job of growing by adding workers. We have very high rates of labour force participation and we have much higher female labour participation in Canada than in the United States. We have a good immigration system. Companies are good at hiring workers and integrating them into the workforce. That has really been the key to our growth.
What has been disappointing is that we've been much less successful in growing output or productivity per worker. Why that really matters is because higher productivity pays for higher wages; it's the source of sustained increases in our standard of living.
It is a concern to us, but we don't really have any levers that affect productivity growth. We influence demand.