Deputy Finance Minister speaks at the Sprott School
The Sprott School of Business welcomed Michael Horgan, Deputy Minister for the Department of Finance, yesterday as our first CXO Series speaker this academic year. Horgan addressed a full house and spoke to “Canada’s Fiscal and Economic Outlook”.
Horgan noted that Canada is one of the world’s leaders in recovering from the global recession, second to Australia among the G7 nations, and we lead the way in employment growth. He attributes Canada’s strong performance to several factors that include solid monetary policy fundamentals , a strong regulatory framework with a complimentary supervisory regime, and an effective stimulus package.
Looking forward, Horgan shared the latest economic forecast that indicates Canada’s debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to return to pre-recession levels by 2015-16. He cautioned that our key domestic risk to recovery is household debt, which is largely tied to mortgages. Canada must also address our poor productivity growth.
Canada currently ranks second last of the G7 countries and 28th out of 34 countries by the OECD. Improving productivity will become increasingly more important as employment growth declines due to the aging population. Horgan advised that we need to encourage older workers to stay in the labour force longer, as well as raise participation rate among groups such as lesser-skilled, lesser-educated and persons with disabilities. Canada also needs to address shortfalls in innovation and investment in research and development.
The Sprott School of Business CXO Speaker Series welcomes leaders in industry and the community to share their expertise and experience with the Sprott community. View our photo gallery of past speakers.
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