OTTAWA: The Trudeau government’s influential team of economic advisers unveiled a batch of growth-lifting recommendations Thursday that focused on immigration, infrastructure and investment strategies. The objective, the experts say, is to double Canada’s projected growth trajectory and add an eye-popping $15,000 to the annual incomes of Canadian households by 2030. The suggestions comprise a first tranche of ideas from the group of external experts who have been enlisted by Finance Minister Bill Morneau to help Ottawa find ways to resuscitate Canada’s lacklustre economy.
The recommendations zeroed in on three areas: productivity-boosting infrastructure; attracting more foreign investment; and opening Canada’s doors wider to a larger number of talented immigrants. “Now is the time where we have to take very bold actions,” council chair Dominic Barton, who is global managing director of consulting giant McKinsey & Co., told a news conference in Ottawa. “(The suggestions) may not be new, these have been talked about before — but they haven’t been done. And so what we’re keen to do is to jolt it.”
