Performance and Potential 2004–05: How Can Canada Prosper in Tomorrow’s World?

This year’s edition focuses on issues that will shape Canada’s social, economic and environmental performance in the coming years: productivity; the management of the Canada U.S. border, the future of the multilateral trading system, foreign direct investment; immigration; and the challenges facing our major cities

Document Highlights

We answer the question “How can Canada prosper in tomorrow’s world?” by focusing on key issues that will affect Canada’s social, economic and environmental performance in the coming years.

First, we benchmark Canada against leading OECD countries to determine our comparative strengths and weaknesses. We explore and compare the productivity of seven industries in Canada and the United States and highlight resulting challenges. We examine how Canada’s prosperity as a trading nation with a small domestic economy is directly linked to world dynamics including: the rise of China and to a lesser extent India as economic powers, the U.S. current account deficit, offshoring, protectionism, and the management of the Canada-U.S. border. We focus on the growing importance of foreign direct investment to Canada and our diminishing success in attracting it. We examine our immigration record and highlight the importance of a new deal for immigrants—one that emphasizes improved selection and integration processes, as well as skill recognition in order to facilitate the successful transition of newcomers to society and the labour force. Finally, we turn our attention to Canada’s cities, which we believe must have a new fiscal framework.