Productivity growth is estimated to have slowed from an average rate of about 2 per cent in the 1950s and 1960s to less than 1 per cent in the 1980s and 1990s, although it has picked up recently with the recovery in economic activity.
I should note that economists do not fully understand why productivity growth in Canada (and, indeed, in other industrial countries) has slowed so sharply since the mid-1970s. I do not propose to try to untangle this puzzle today. Nonetheless, there are a few points I would like to make with respect to the Canadian situation.