Alberta productivity rates hampered by the oilsands
Posted Jun 16, 2011 12:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A new report from the C.D. Howe Institute suggests Alberta’s productivity rate is being hampered by the oilsands.
That’s according to policy analyst Benjamin Dachis who tells 660News the wildrose province ranks relatively low because of the boom in the crude sector.
Dachis says things like education have suffered because workers are not investing into post-secondary schooling to increase their income later in life.
“When it comes to productivity, we don’t mean working or trying harder,” he says. “We’re looking to see how workers can do more with what they have available to them.”
He says we’re seeing low rates of technology and innovation and a re-allocation of where people in Alberta are working.
The Institute believes resource-driven provinces will continue to be hampered by low-productivity rates if something doesn’t change.
Dachis adds Albertans need to start saving capital because those resources won’t last forever.
While Alberta is overall in the middle, the report says the big winners in terms of productivity were Newfoundland and Saskatchewan.
