Evidence of meeting #7 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was population.
10:15 a.m.
NDP
Denise Savoie NDP Victoria, BC
It seems to me it would be very important to have that data to determine the policies that could be put in place to encourage access.
As regards literacy rates, I think I saw, on Statistics Canada's Internet site, that 42 per cent of workers with an average age of 42 were below the level three threshold. Is that true?
10:15 a.m.
Director, Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics, Statistics Canada
It is 42 per cent for all people between the ages of 16 and 65.
10:15 a.m.
NDP
Denise Savoie NDP Victoria, BC
There was a figure, 42 years, that really struck me. It seemed to me...
10:15 a.m.
Director, Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics, Statistics Canada
I believe it was a percentage.
10:15 a.m.
NDP
Denise Savoie NDP Victoria, BC
It is just the percentage. I had seen the number 42, but I may be mistaken and it may be the percentage, not the age. So it corresponds to people between the ages of 16 and 65.
10:15 a.m.
Director, Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics, Statistics Canada
That is correct: 42 per cent of Canadians between the ages of 16 and 65 are below level three.
10:15 a.m.
NDP
Denise Savoie NDP Victoria, BC
The majority of these people are closer to 65 years of age, so they are older people, and the other rather large group is the immigrant one.
10:15 a.m.
Director, Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics, Statistics Canada
That is correct. There is a relationship between age and the level of literacy. The younger generations generally have higher literacy levels. Moreover, there is, in fact, a larger proportion of immigrants whose level of literacy is below level three.
10:15 a.m.
NDP
Denise Savoie NDP Victoria, BC
Okay.
How do you measure productivity generally and the productivity of workers? Is that part of your studies?
10:15 a.m.
Manager, Current Economic Analysis, Statistics Canada
That is not part of our studies on the labour force, but we must provide a quarterly and a yearly estimate. We publish productivity by worker on a quarterly basis. It equals the GDP divided by the number of workers. That is labour productivity. In our annual estimates, we make an adjustment for the capital, as there are two inputs in the portion on production. Normally, to produce the GDP, you must account for work and capital. We want to separate productivity and the increase in GDP which is not based on a larger input of one or the other. It is an increase in pure productivity. We call that multi-factor productivity. Generally, both move in similar ways.
10:15 a.m.
NDP
Denise Savoie NDP Victoria, BC
So, productivity is simply based on the number of workers. There are no subfactors. The productivity of a worker is established solely on the basis of the number of workers...
10:15 a.m.
Manager, Current Economic Analysis, Statistics Canada
That holds for most of the productivity, but it does not stop there. The subsequent questions are designed to determine productivity for one thing or another, by province, and to determine the reasons that explain it. We do that when we begin to study variables that may cover that, for example investments, education, and a host of other factors. However, that is never part of the calculation of productivity itself. An analysis follows the publication of our data.
10:15 a.m.
Manager, Current Economic Analysis, Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada has published many studies on the factors that affect these results, such as investment. We have the exact measure of contributions from investments. We have studied the importance of other factors like innovation. Do we have a measure that indicates if productivity is 60, 20 or 10 per cent? No. There are factors linked to productivity that we cannot measure.
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you.
We're pretty much out of time for that question.
Now I'm going to move to the final part of round two.
You have five minutes, Mr. Storseth.
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the witnesses from Statistics Canada for coming. It's been a very interesting presentation so far.
I want to pick up on Mr. Lake's point regarding literacy. You talked a bit about our literacy lagging compared to some of the Scandinavian countries. Can you tell me if that also correlates with workforce participation and productivity, compared to those countries?
10:20 a.m.
Director, Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics, Statistics Canada
That's a good question. I think we have a number of analyses showing that people occupying different jobs have different levels of literacy, which is expected. You would also expect that those with more education earn a higher wage and thus are considered much more productive. So there's definitely a link between wages, productivity, and literacy.
Your question is how does this compare to what is happening in Scandinavian countries, which I wouldn't be able to answer.
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Do we have any studies that would compare the two? Is there something we can find out later?
10:20 a.m.
Director, Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics, Statistics Canada
Maryanne is mentioning there's a professor at the University of Ottawa who has looked at economic growth according to the literacy level of the population. He has shown a clear relationship. I think if literacy increased by 1%, economic growth grows by 3%—I'm not exactly sure of the number—but there's a clear link between literacy level, economic growth, and productivity as well.
You're right that we could be comparing what's working well in those Scandinavian countries, such as Finland, and looking at what Canada could adapt from those practices. To my knowledge, this hasn't been done.
The literacy survey has been done similarly in both countries. It's got a wealth of data about the individuals themselves. So we can make all kinds of correlation between their literacy level and personal characteristics. Then we can probably make inferences as to why literacy levels are higher in those countries than in Canada.
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
I was also reading in some of the reports here that our labour force actually grew by 200% over the last 50 years to get us to the economic state we are in today. I see that your projections for our future have us growing only at a rate of about 5%. Would it be fair to say that you could attribute this to the decline in participation from our baby boomers?
10:20 a.m.
Coordinator, Research and Analysis, Demography Division, Statistics Canada
The infrastructure of the population is certainly an important factor in the growth of the population that is working. The baby boomers are now reaching the age when they will retire. That will increase pressure on their rate of participation.
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
It's my understanding that the United States should be in a similar situation, yet their projections are to grow by about 34%.
10:20 a.m.
Coordinator, Research and Analysis, Demography Division, Statistics Canada
Their situation is very different in terms of demography. The U.S. has a fertility rate of 2.1%, so the level of fertility in the U.S. is high enough to replace the generation. Their population is younger than the Canadian population. The baby boomers were also an important factor in the U.S., as in Canada, but I think following the baby boom, their fertility hasn't dropped as low as ours.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
If I have one more second, I'll ask a question that I come up with every once in a while. What would Statistics Canada's definition of poverty in Canada be?