Media Releases

Task Force on Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic Progress releases Eleventh Annual Report.

November 29, 2012

TORONTO, ON — As the reces­sion recedes, the Task Force on Com­pet­i­tive­ness, Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and Eco­nom­ic Progress calls on all Ontar­i­ans to build on the province’s strengths and make the deci­sions and invest­ments need­ed to achieve the 2020 Pros­per­i­ty Agen­da. The Task Force sin­gles out the “dead cash” on the bal­ance sheets of Ontario busi­ness­es as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to enhance the province’s pros­per­i­ty. 

Toron­to – The Task Force is con­cerned that a new sta­tus quo of slow or stag­nant eco­nom­ic growth for Ontario’s econ­o­my is devel­op­ing. If eco­nom­ic growth lan­guish­es at less than 2 per­cent annu­al­ly, every­thing from gov­ern­ment fund­ing and pro­grams to pri­vate sec­tor com­pet­i­tive­ness and employ­ment will be impact­ed. The chal­lenge is to take advan­tage of Ontario’s rel­a­tive strength and sta­bil­i­ty now and push for the growth that can be achieved. This is the key con­clu­sion of the Eleventh Annu­al Report, A push for growth: The time is now, released today by the Task Force on Com­pet­i­tive­ness, Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and Eco­nom­ic Progress.

In its Report, the Task Force reaf­firms that Ontario’s econ­o­my is one of the world’s most suc­cess­ful when com­pared to sim­i­lar regions out­side North Amer­i­ca. Ontario’s Gross Domes­tic Prod­uct (GDP) per capi­ta ranks 5th among a peer group of 13 pros­per­ous inter­na­tion­al regions. But among a set of 16 North Amer­i­can peer juris­dic­tions, Ontario con­tin­ues to lag. The Task Force reports that Ontario’s GDP per capi­ta ranked 14th among those peers and lagged the medi­an of the 16 North Amer­i­can peer juris­dic­tions by $7,500. When the Task Force began mea­sur­ing Ontario’s rank­ing in 2001, the province was 14th among the same peers. This con­tin­ued lag­ging per­for­mance medi­oc­rity rep­re­sents lost pros­per­i­ty, which neg­a­tive­ly affects Ontar­i­ans at all income lev­els, and needs to be addressed now.

Roger Mar­tin, Dean of the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment and Chair­man of the Task Force observed: “We have so many eco­nom­ic advan­tages in Ontario – a sound bank­ing sys­tem, a strong hous­ing mar­ket, a robust dol­lar, a tra­di­tion of build­ing great infra­struc­ture, and a tal­ent­ed and diverse work­force. But the gap in GDP per capi­ta with North Amer­i­can peers shows that Ontario needs to move now to push for more growth.” While we need to address our pro­duc­tiv­i­ty in all areas, the Report sin­gles out the “dead cash” on the bal­ance sheets of Ontario’s com­pa­nies as a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty. “That mon­ey can be used to invest in the phys­i­cal and human cap­i­tal we need to increase our pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and close the pros­per­i­ty gap,” said Mar­tin.

The Report com­mends Ontario’s cor­po­rate lead­ers for the sta­bil­i­ty they have pro­vid­ed through tur­bu­lent eco­nom­ic times. But now those same lead­ers need to invest in infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­nol­o­gy (ICT), as well as in efforts to improve the skills of their work force. Com­pa­nies also need to improve their man­age­ment capa­bil­i­ty and find ways to scale up oper­a­tions in Ontario.

While gov­ern­ments of all lev­els have made great strides in areas of pub­lic pol­i­cy relat­ed to pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, such as tax reform and post-sec­ondary edu­ca­tion invest­ment, they must now con­cen­trate their efforts on tack­ling deficits in a bal­anced way, pro­vid­ing appro­pri­ate incen­tives for busi­ness to invest, and improv­ing the lit­er­a­cy and skills of the work force in a way that nur­tures long-term pro­duc­tiv­i­ty.

Final­ly, the Task Force needs to push itself to find new and cre­ative ways of hav­ing its voice heard in Ontario. The time to push for growth is now.

Actions to achieve the 2020 Pros­per­i­ty Agen­da

For busi­ness…
• Con­sid­er alter­na­tives to hold­ing larg­er cash bal­ances and address the dead cash conun­drum.
• Encour­age pri­vate sec­tor invest­ment in ICT, skilled work­ers, and research and devel­op­ment.
• Scale up oper­a­tions in Ontario firms and invest the appro­pri­ate resources in R&D.
• Improve man­age­ment capa­bil­i­ty.
• Boost invest­ment in machin­ery and equip­ment when the Cana­di­an dol­lar is high to cap­i­tal­ize on the ben­e­fit of strong pur­chas­ing pow­er.

For gov­ern­ments…
• Main­tain invest­ments in edu­ca­tion in line with that of peer juris­dic­tions as efforts to bal­ance the bud­get are made.
• Con­cen­trate efforts to upgrade the skills and lit­er­a­cy of work­ers, par­tic­u­lar­ly in ser­vice occu­pa­tions and high val­ue added man­u­fac­tur­ing.
• Remove bar­ri­ers that pre­vent robust trade with the glob­al econ­o­my.
• Rein­force Ontario’s struc­tures of spe­cial­ized sup­port and com­pet­i­tive pres­sure for busi­ness­es.
• Ensure that provin­cial and munic­i­pal gov­ern­ments are invest­ing ade­quate­ly in urban infra­struc­ture to facil­i­tate and sup­port the inevitable growth of urban pop­u­la­tions.

The com­plete report can be down­loaded direct­ly from:
http://www.competeprosper.ca/download.php?file=AR11_FINAL.pdf

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:
Jami­son Steeve, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Insti­tute for Com­pet­i­tive­ness & Pros­per­i­ty at 416–946-7585 or vis­it http://www.competeprosper.ca.

The cre­ation of the Task Force on Com­pet­i­tive­ness, Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and Eco­nom­ic Progress was announced in Ontario’s 2001 Speech from the Throne. Roger L. Mar­tin, Dean of the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, is the Chair­man. Its man­date is to mea­sure and mon­i­tor Ontario’s com­pet­i­tive­ness, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and eco­nom­ic progress com­pared to oth­er provinces and US states, and to report to the pub­lic on a reg­u­lar basis.

The Insti­tute for Com­pet­i­tive­ness & Pros­per­i­ty is an inde­pen­dent not-for-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion estab­lished in 2001 to serve as the research arm of Ontario’s Task Force on Com­pet­i­tive­ness, Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and Eco­nom­ic Progress. The Insti­tute and the Task Force are sup­port­ed through the Min­istry of Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment and Inno­va­tion.

Ontario’s 12 inter­na­tion­al peer juris­dic­tions out­side North Amer­i­ca:
• Baden-Würt­tem­berg (Ger­many)
• Bay­ern (Ger­many)
• Cataluña (Spain)
• Hes­sen (Ger­many)
• Kan­to (Japan)
• Kin­ki (Japan)
• Lom­bar­dia (Italy)
• New South Wales (Aus­tralia)
• Nor­drhein-West­falen (Ger­many)
• Rhône-Alpes (France)
• South East (UK)
• Vlaams-Gewest (Bel­gium)

Ontario’s 15 peer North Amer­i­can juris­dic­tions (14 US states and Que­bec):
• Cal­i­for­nia
• Flori­da
• Geor­gia
• Illi­nois
• Indi­ana
• Mass­a­chu­setts
• Michi­gan
• New Jer­sey
• New York
• North Car­oli­na
• Ohio
• Penn­syl­va­nia
• Que­bec
• Texas
• Vir­ginia

The Rot­man School of Man­age­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to is redesign­ing busi­ness edu­ca­tion for the 21st cen­tu­ry with a cur­ricu­lum based on Inte­gra­tive Think­ing. Locat­ed in the world’s most diverse city, the Rot­man School fos­ters a new way to think that enables the design of cre­ative busi­ness solu­tions.  The School is cur­rent­ly rais­ing $200 mil­lion to ensure Cana­da has the world-class busi­ness school it deserves. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Ken McGuf­fin
Man­ag­er, Media Rela­tions
Rot­man School of Man­age­ment
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Voice 416.946.3818
mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca
Fol­low Rot­man on Twit­ter @rotmanschool
Watch Rot­man on You Tube www.youtube.com/rotmanschool