Mark Wiseman: Canadians 'got to start talking about' lagging productivity

Mark Wiseman, the former CPPIB CEO and current chairman of Canada at Lazard, said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg Tuesday that much of the government’s most recent budget focuses on redistribution, but it “didn’t talk enough” about productivity issues. Last week Canada’s federal government tabled its 2024 budget, with new taxes to help offset billions in new spending on housing supply and social supports. 

“If the pie is larger, there's more to redistribute. And if we're not growing the pie, we can't spend, the way that we're spending ad infinitum,” Wiseman said. 

“So we need to start a conversation about growing the pie. We need to start a conversation about how we increase productivity in this country so that we are actually growing what's really important, ultimately, which is median GDP (gross domestic product) per capita.”