I've been talking about this in my classes for literally 35 years. I've studied and read, I think, every major document in our country on this topic, going all the way back to the seventies and eighties. I've come to the conclusion—and I agree with the senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada—that reduced competition, because we have so many protected industries, is a major contributor. I'm not suggesting it's the only contributor.
This is straight out of Schumpeter again. If you're not forced to compete, then you're not going to compete. You're not going to innovate. Why would you innovate if you don't have to innovate? We have created a lot of protection in multiple industries, which is allowing these industries not to innovate.
To your second question—again, the research on this is very clear—displacing and crowding out the private markets with government spending that's classified as investment is not going to increase productivity, at least from any of the evidence I have seen. We have a crisis in this country. That's not just from the senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada. David Dodge has talked about this. John Manley, the former Liberal, has talked about this. Bill Morneau has talked about it.
This is not a Conservative view. The numbers are shouting at us that we have a profound problem that's going to hurt our young people.