Feds, provinces must work together to tackle productivity crisis: Alberta premier

Canada's economic productivity crisis can only be solved if the federal and provincial governments come together to address issues like major project approvals and inter-provincial trade barriers, Alberta's premier said Wednesday.

Canada's economic productivity crisis can only be solved if the federal and provincial governments come together to address issues like major project approvals and inter-provincial trade barriers, Alberta's premier said Wednesday.

"Every government, at every level in this country, needs to be pulling in the same direction," said Danielle Smith, who spoke in Calgary at a national conference on productivity, a term which describes how much an economy produces per hour worked.

"There are too many regulatory roadblocks and too much red tape, too many barriers to the free movement of goods and services and labour, and let’s face it, there are too many taxes."

Improving productivity is seen as a way to help boost GDP, as well as wages and living standards, and to help fight inflation. 

The conference, organized by the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy, attracted leading economists from across the country as well as finance ministers from several provinces.

Productivity, or Canada's lack of it, has been in the spotlight in recent months. Earlier this year, senior deputy Bank of Canada governor Carolyn Rogers called the country's lagging productivity record an "emergency." 

She pointed out that in 2022, Canadian productivity was 71 per cent of that of the U.S., while Canada also lags behind its G7 peers.