Report: Economy Won’t Return to Full Capacity Until 2014

(CTV.ca – The Canadian Press)

Canada’s recession was short – and in some regions brutish – but the aftermath will be almost as challenging, three new separate reports on the economy suggest. The reports from the country’s budget watchdog, Statistics Canada and one of the leading economic think tanks, the Conference Board, are remarkably similar in detailing what Canada lost during the recession and the problems it faces in recovery.

Putting it in economic terms, Statistics Canada concludes the country’s gross domestic product shrank 2.9% last year, slightly more than its original estimate. But not all regions experienced the recession in the same way. Newfoundland’s economy fell back a massive 10.2%, while two tiny economies, Prince Edward Island and the Yukon, did not contract at all. Among the bigger provinces, Ontario’s economy shrank 3.1% and Quebec’s by a relatively modest one per cent. […]

By 2014, a different set of challenges will be facing Canadians and their governments, says the Conference Board’s Pedro Antunes. In a far-reaching outlook, Antunes says 2014 is when the real impact of the retiring baby boom generation will start being felt in Canada’s labour market, economy and government budgets. Read more here.