Having modern, reliable infrastructure in place allows businesses to invest with greater certainty, thus furthering the ability to adjust and compete in a changing global economy. Ontario needs public policies that can support both public and private investment in infrastructure so that firms can become more productive.
At the same time, policymakers stretched and sometimes ignored the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact. And then, in 2008, came the global financial crisis. Many countries had to rescue their banking systems and support economic activity. And that dramatically drove up their levels of sovereign debt.