Canada continues to lag behind other industrialized countries in several key economic and social areas, with a growing productivity gap with the United States, the head of the Conference Board of Canada told Calgary business leaders last week.

“We don’t seem to be able to get as much out of our country as other people do,” observed James Nininger, president of the Ottawa-based think tank, as he presented the board’s annual productivity report card, Performance and Potential.

The fifth annual report shows that Canada’s socio-economic performance compared to six other countries is overwhelmingly average, and continuing to slip behind the U.S.

Canada scored poorly in the categories of innovation and environment, and only average in the sectors dealing with the economy, education and skills, and health and society. It was given a top rating in the category of labour markets, which measures employment growth.

“I’ll let you decide, assuming you buy into this assessment . . . how you feel about the performance of our country. Is that where we want to be?” Nininger asked a meeting of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

Nininger added while the United Nations may rank Canada as the No. 1 country in the world, “our analysis doesn’t show that.”

Canada trails the other six countries — the U.S., Germany, Japan, Sweden, Norway and Australia — in several areas, he noted, including money spent on research and development, and the number of external patent applications.

But Alberta, he added, “has really led other provinces as one of the finest examples of investment in innovation at a provincial level. More of that has to be done across the country.”

The report calls on leaders in all sectors, including business, to focus their efforts on:

* developing a learning culture;

* stimulating greater foreign investment;

* innovation to improve productivity growth and wealth creation;

* building a sustainable social and health-care policy.

“I think we need to think outside the confines of the Health Act to bring about change,” said Nininger.

Nininger also predicted that the low Canadian dollar would rise to the 69-cent range by the end of the year. “If you look at other currencies vis-a-vis the United States, we’re doing better than other countries,” he said.

“It’s just in the last year or two, any money that’s around is not coming here, it’s going to the United States . . . It will change. It’s got to change.”

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