QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
State of the Economy
June 13, 2019
Senator Harder, I hear you. The unemployment rate in Canada is the lowest in decades. But the IMD World Competitiveness Center recently released its annual rankings. It showed Canada had dropped three spots to number 13. It is the worst performance by Canada since the rankings started in 1997.
Canada ranked at the bottom of the barrel in the categories of competitive tax regime and competency of government. The report said one of the main challenges of 2019 for Canada was the shortage of favourable incentives to draw high-quality foreign direct investment.
Foreign direct investment, as you know, Senator Harder, in the Canadian economy has fallen off a cliff since 2015. The economy has barely grown for two consecutive quarters.
Senator Harder, why did the government not take this into consideration very directly when it tabled its last budget?
I thank the honourable senator for her question. She will know, as a member of the Senate Finance Committee, that the last budget indeed has a number of measures in it to render the Canadian economy more effective and efficient.
She will also know, because she pays attention to these things, that in the last reporting period there was a surge in investment in Canada to make us the second-highest country in terms of receiving direct foreign investment.
