Government Operations committee  Thank you for the work you do.

Government Operations committee  I'm sorry, but if I may, I'll just say that we have provinces that do the same, so it's not even as though you have to go to the other side of the world. You can look right next door.

Government Operations committee  I think the federal government has a strong role to play in investing in infrastructure under its jurisdiction. I would never quarrel with that. The topic of the federal government's spending in areas of provincial jurisdiction came up earlier. One of the things that does concern

Government Operations committee  Chair, shall I go first?

Government Operations committee  Canada, being at the forefront when it comes to the quality of our public sector accounting standards, can't as easily import from abroad as we could if we were in a worse position. What I would respond by way of what I hope is a constructive answer to your question is to say tha

Government Operations committee  The numbers on capital investment generally tell a totally different story to what you've just said. Canada is getting cents on the dollar per dollar invested per typical U.S. worker. In Switzerland, investment per worker is double what it is in Canada. We are simply not equippin

Government Operations committee  I tend to be an optimist when it comes to the ability of emerging technologies to let us all earn better livings in jobs that are safer, cleaner and more rewarding. I am fundamentally optimistic about that. The trouble is that, when I look at Canada over the last number of year

Government Operations committee  Partly it's because we have a dynamic automotive sector, so the infrastructure is there. It's an attractive place to be. It has a trained workforce. There are a lot of good reasons to invest in Canada. I worry that a little bit too much of it is related to government subsidies wh

Government Operations committee  It's partly a matter of concern about the economy. There's nothing unusual in that and nothing dramatically different from what the government showed in its numbers. It's worth commenting quickly, though, on the reliability of the projections. One of the comments I made at the t

Government Operations committee  I haven't done the calculation you mentioned in that exact way, but let me reinforce the point I think Governor Macklem was making: The economy is operating at capacity. If governments are increasing their spending at a rate that's faster than the productive capacity that the eco

Government Operations committee  I'm sorry. I was digressing a bit, so please excuse me.

Government Operations committee  No, that is not my intent. It's a matter of resources. The C.D. Howe Institute has a very small budget. As a result, we are not easily able to publish everything in both languages, as we would certainly like to do. I apologize for that. If you would like anything in particular to

Government Operations committee  We should be able to do better in the future.

Government Operations committee  The comparisons internationally are certainly favourable to Canada, so I agree with that. I will point out that when you are netting assets of the Canada and the Quebec pension plans, or some of the big public sector pension plans, against the liabilities of governments when tha

Government Operations committee  The federal government's performance in our report card has recently been very bad. The failure to produce a budget at all in 2020, as everyone in this group will know, was unprecedented. It was a dismaying thing to see happen, because it appears as though there weren't the kinds