I'll point out, concerning the research you're mentioning there, that we were asked to do the Canadian study. There are 17 different studies from 17 different countries for the U.K.'s Productivity Institute. We were trying to look at the productivity performance in Canada's economy over long periods of time and the role of public policy in either making that better or making that worse.
We analyzed a lot of different data. We did some decompositions and various measures. As you mentioned, we came to the conclusion that it's not as though Canadian policy-makers have been asleep at the wheel. Don Drummond, in the International Productivity Monitor that we published about 10 or 15 years ago, said that economists have come forward with a lot of different recommendations. We cited some of those. About 70% of that list has been implemented, maybe not to the full extent of what people wanted, but we shouldn't think that the remaining 30% would necessarily get us to the point where productivity is going to take a major improvement.
Our diagnosis came down to there being a variety of.... It's a systemic and complex issue that has been going on for a long period of time, but slow technological progress is a driver. That's happening in Canada, but it's happening globally as well. We're getting more and more research dollars and getting less and less out. That's just getting towards the frontier and moving more slowly. That just seems to be the case of where we are with technology.
I do think, as others mentioned, that we have some options with AI, but the weak business investment in Canada is something that stands out relative to others. As I mentioned, the government is making some policies now to really put investment front and centre. They're looking at a capital budgeting framework, which is going to sharpen incentives and improve that.
In the near term, I'm relatively pessimistic about the ability to have a big impact on major projects in Canada, at least from the private sector and at least in manufacturing, as we're facing a big trade shock. I'm optimistic over the longer term that Canada can do better.