The demographics story is often told as one about the labour force: as the boomer generation retires and exits from the workforce, labour’s contribution to the potential growth of the economy declines. This is already under way. In 2011, the growth rate of the population of working-age Canadians crossed below that of the overall population, reversing an almost 50-year trend.
However, we must bear in mind the important fact that these policies and measures can only temporarily mitigate financial and economic shocks and reduce the degree of the economic downturn – in other words, they are merely measures to buy time.