In his commentary last week, Nolan Crouse admirably highlights an issue that doesn’t get enough attention: Canada has a productivity problem. The formula he presents is intuitive and appealing but ultimately misdiagnoses the source of the problem. He echoes a familiar refrain: that today’s workers just don’t measure up to the hard-working employees of the past - those heroes of yesteryear who showed up early, laboured long hours, and took on dirty, difficult jobs without complaint. But working more isn’t the same thing as producing more.
According to the Bank of Canada, “increasing productivity means finding ways for people to create more value during the time they’re at work.” Getting there is complicated, but at its core, it requires investment in tools and knowledge that will allow employees to get more output from their time. Our farmers haven’t become more productive because they work longer hours. They’ve become more productive because of investments in combines and tractors, the development of higher-yielding crops, and a better understanding of soil chemistry.
According to the OECD, Canada spent just 1.7 per cent of our GDP on research and development in 2022, less than half of the US at 3.6 per cent. Canadian companies also spend only about half as much capital on machinery and technology per worker than our more productive southern neighbours.
To answer Crouse’s question, “What is happening inside Canada?” It isn’t that employees are working a lot less – Statistics Canada reports workers logging 36.3 hours each week at their main job in 2002 and 35.7 hours in 2022. What is happening in Canada is that our businesses aren’t investing enough in research, development, tools, and training that will help their employees accomplish more with each hour worked. It is absolutely true that employers struggle to find hard workers willing to take on difficult tasks and go the extra mile. But blaming workers for Canada’s poor productivity growth is too easy an answer and allows our businesses to shirk their responsibility to empower their employees to excel. A lazy farmer with a tractor will plow a field faster than the hardest-working farmer with a donkey.
Robert Latimer, St. Albert
