Exclusive Report: How to fix Canada - On the brink
A new report, three years in the making, paints a stark picture of Canada's lagging performance and provides a road map for future economic success.
November 27, 2006

PHILIP PREVILLE- Macleans Magazine
The following articles cover a Conference Board of Canada report entitled Mission Possible: Sustainable Prosperity for Canada. For more information, please visit the Conference Board of Canada website at conferenceboard.ca.

"We don't work enough." So said former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard last month in a televised interview, tongue-lashing Quebecers for their poor work ethic. The province's economic situation, as he saw it, was akin to treading water: people had grown accustomed to a comfortable standard of living based in large part on government programs and services -- everything from education to health care to generous public pensions -- but had given little thought to how those bills get paid. "There is a level of comfort [right now] that is dangerous because the days ahead will not be easy, they will be very difficult," he said. His solution: "We must work more!"

Bouchard was half right, and not just about Quebec. Canada's economy has been underperforming for years. But the fix isn't for all of us to put in extra time at the office. Canadians already have among the longest working weeks in the developed world, with more hours and less vacation time than most. On average, Canadians work roughly the same hours as Americans. The real problem is that, during those hours, we produce 20 per cent less output. Canadians don't need to work harder. We need to work smarter. How to do that, and thereby turn Canada into the most successful country in the 21st century, is the subject of a soon-to-be-released Conference Board of Canada Report, three years in the making: "Mission Possible: Sustainable Prosperity for Canada."

India-Canada Business Ties Get A Boost
AJAY JINDAL
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/627601.cm

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

The India story appears to have entered the virtuous cycle. That is the impression you get when you hear the plans Canada’s government and companies have for India. Having realise d that Canada’s trade with India was miniscule, and no Canadian company had a significant exposure to India, Canada is now trying to engage India at multiple levels.

From federal government, to provinces, and finally individual corporates, at all levels there is a realisation that business with India can be larger.

In recent months, there have been visits by government and business delegations at various levels. How serious is the effort? Between November 2006 and May 2007 one or the other Canadian delegation will travel to India at least once a month.

What they want to stress is the similarity of business strengths between Canada and India. Key sectors in Canada are IT, life sciences, multimedia, aerospace, mining and infrastructure. Many of these are high growth areas in India too.
Says Marie-Lucie Moran, deputy minister of international trade, “We need to be more visible in India. Visibility of Canadian business in India is very low now.” Similar sentiments were echoed by Raymond Bachand, minister of economic development, innovation and export trade, the government of Que’bec (a Canadian province).

Mr Bachand is currently in India leading a 70-member delegation of government officials, businessmen and university chiefs. “We are here to renew existing links and to create new ones,” said Mr Bachand. Que’bec’s Premier had already visited India in January 2006, so this is the second delegation from Que’bec in a year. Says Jacques Daoust, president, Investissement Que’bec and part of Mr Bachand’s delegation, “We are going to India to find business opportunities for Indian companies to invest in India and vice versa.”

Investissement Que’bec is an outfit owned by Que’bec government, and provides loans and insurance services to business. Other Canadian provinces are targeting Indian as well. Ontario’s premier Dalton McGuinty leads a large business mission to India in Janauary next year.

Some of Canadian government’s missions may already be bearing fruit, if data from Export Development Canada (EDC), Canada’s official export credit agency. Says Marvin Hough, regional vice-president, Asia “By September 2006, we had already observed a 25% increase over 2005’s annual business volume.” EDC expects to end 2006 with a strong 60-70% growth in its business volume with India.

EDC supports about 40% of Canada’s exports to India. Trade associations have their own set of acitivities on. Canadian Council of Chief Executives, which is a very select group of CEOs of top 150 companies in Canada, is planning a 7-10 day CEO mission on March 2007. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce (CCC), which is Canada’s largest industry association, with 300 local chambers, is working on a detailed study on policy initiatives required to increase trade and investment with India. CCC did a similar exercise with China in earlier this year.

Interestingly, even city level associations are actively looking at how to promote business with India. OCRI, an association of small and medium size companies of Ottawa, is planning a mission to India in February next year along with two other cities, Toronto and Waterloo.
ET Intelligence Group

Canadians living on the edge: study

TORONTO, Dec. 7 /CNW/ - An important wealth survey released today by Statistics Canada provides further evidence that what Canadians believe about inequality in Canada is in fact true.

The survey shows that wealth is extremely unequally distributed -- and Canadians are taking on heavier debt loads in order to keep up.

"Economic insecurity is on the rise," says Hugh Mackenzie, research fellow with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). "An uncomfortably large proportion of Canadians are living so close to the line that they are unable to save for retirement.

"This potent mixture of high debt and no pension savings is a recipe for future economic distress -- especially when the economy takes a turn for the worse, which it will."

Wealth survey highlights include:
- The concentration of wealth at the high end continued to grow from 1999 to 2005.
- The wealthiest 20% families held 69.2% of the total net wealth in Canada, up from 68.5% in 1999. That increase in share was entirely at the expense of the middle 20%, whose share dropped from 8.8% to 8.4%.
- The net worth of the 20% of families at the bottom of the wealth scale was negative again in 2005.
- Debt increased at a faster rate than net worth. More than 6.5% of families literally operate under water -- with negative net worth.
- Between 1999 and 2005, the median debt load for families rose 38% from $32,300 in 1999 to $44,500 in 2005.

"Despite our retirement income system's heavy reliance on private pensions and RRSPs for retirement income, nearly 30% of Canadian families have no retirement savings at all," says Mackenzie. "This raises serious questions about what we are going to do when these Canadians reach retirement age."

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