We could be doing better

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Pontiac Perspective  Peter J. Gauthier


Pontiac Perspective  Peter J. Gauthier

Prime Minister Harper and his Conservative        government continue to maintain that Canada’s economy is the strongest of the G8 countries – the eight top industrial countries of the world. However, the real measure of economic development is the improvement of living standards made possible by economic growth. Whatever the Harper government may claim, the numbers indicate that real economic improvement for most Canadians is not happening. 
First – the good news. The average pay of Canada’s top CEOs (representing one tenth of one percent of income earners) was over two million, six hundred thousand dollars or 171 times more than the average Canadian wage earner. Equally noticeable is the rate of increase in pay for these CEOs. Between 1998 and 2012 the average wage in Canada increased by 6% while the average compensation for CEOs increased by 73% for the same period.
Now for the rest of the story. For those Canadians who are not among the country’s top CEOs, the   economic picture is rather bleak. Over one million Canadians (1 in 10 workers) earn minimum wages. This is double the rate of a decade ago. When it comes to child poverty, Canada ranks 22nd-worst out of the 31 countries in the OECD. More than 3million Canadians (or one in ten) are poor; and 610,000 of them are children. Every month, 770,000 people in Canada rely on food banks for basic nutrition; and forty percent of those relying on food banks are children.   
Even those whose wages place them above the poverty line are not enjoying an easy economic life. The    government is concerned about the lack of retirement savings; Canadians are not saving enough. But there is a reason for this. There has been noticeable decline in personal savings rates from 11% to 5% over the past couple of decades, with the rate at times dipping below 2%. This decline in savings rates is a symptom of the failure of wage increases to keep up with inflation.
Last month Canada lost a staggering 21,900 jobs and the unemployment rate remains around 7% with    little indication of improvement over the next several years. Even more alarming is the youth (workers aged 15 to 29) unemployment rate – more than 13%, almost double that of the prevailing rate. Compounding this    dismal number is the debt owed by many of these youth resulting from high education costs that they have had to finance by     borrowing. Adding to the unemployment woes is the dropping value of the Canadian dollar making such basics as food, clothing and fuel more expensive.
The Harper government has chosen to recite certain favourable numbers about our economy. But they have chosen to ignore the more significant facts about the economic realities faced by the majority of ordinary Canadians. If Prime Minister Harper and his ministers are so confident about Canada’s economic position, why do they not compare Canada to countries such as Germany, Australia, Norway or Sweden? Is it because these countries have fared much better in dealing with the economic challenges of today?