Canada to the Nth: Seeking Pathways to Yes in our Productivity Crisis
Oh Canada. We need a new CAN-DO spirit!
From 6th to 18th productivity ranking of 38 OECD member nations between 1970 to 2022*. A facetious observer might say we are following Homer Simpson’s advice: “You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.”
From interprovincial trade barriers to workforce supply and housing, our challenges can seem daunting. Our future prosperity and economic competitiveness relies on tackling productivity challenges head on, and more aggressively.
Are there some coping tools as Step 1 that bridge over our self-protective Homer Simpson escape hatch? Are there some Step 2 things that might gather us around the organization, community, and country campfire of common cause to fix, to elevate, to legacy-build for future generations? Can we find more paradoxical inspiration in the words of Friedrich Nietzsche who declared that “efficiency is intelligent laziness”?
Well let’s scratch the itch a bit in this frank talk from a guy old enough to bend down to tie his shoes and wonder what else he can do while there – which affords some modest perspective about the power economic developers have in a world so in need of the beating heart of who they are: the people who say YES and work to make progress happen.
*Src: RBC Economics June 4, 2024
About the Speaker
Chris Fields
Chris Fields
Chris is an informative, entertaining, and insightful strategic humorist with a serious message: dare to be different and reach highest aspiration or join the burgeoning ranks of the unnoticed. Chris’ 30 years of award-winning community economic development experience in 90 communities has been dedicated to reconnecting people to the power of community-building. His dry sense of humour and no nonsense, cut-through-clutter style challenges conventions and leaves people with inspiration to “make community-building personal.”
