Ep. 377: Canada’s Investment Crisis

Guest: Jock Finlayson

“Canada invests less per worker than other advanced countries and capital intensity, (or the weight of a firm’s assets such as plants, property and equipment) is declining relative to the U.S.,” says a “Women in Capital Markets” report.

Worse yet, the report goes on to say, “Canadian firms are instead boosting investment outside of Canada.” That, however, is just one element of a flight of capital in Canada; the other kick in the teeth is that we lag far behind other OECD countries in attracting foreign investment in business or enterprises.

A recently published C.D. Howe Institute Study titled “Declining Vital Signs: Canada’s Investment Crisis” says, “Canada’s stock of business capital is not even keeping pace with workforce growth – ominous in its implications for current and future productivity.”

The report points out that “Canadian workers will have less capital – less non-residential building and engineering, less M&E and less in the way of IP products – with which to produce goods and services, earn incomes and fund public services in the years to come.”

Stuart McNish invited Jock Finlayson, the past Chief Economist at the Business Council of British Columbia, to join him for a Conversation That Matters about how Canada became a less attractive place to invest for international and domestic investors and why British Columbia is even less attractive.