Annual lists 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995

A Report on Plans and Priorities (2001-02 Estimates) - 3
- Table of Contents - Previous - Next -

Section III: Departmental Plans, Results and Activities

Fostering strong and sustainable economic growth is the goal upon which all departmental activities are focussed. The following chart displays key results commitments. Key priorities and activities to meet these commitments are detailed on subsequent pages.

Summary of Key Results Commitments

Strong and Sustainable Economic Growth

The next few years present a unique opportunity to determine the shape of the Canadian economy for at least the decade to come. The economic transformation of Canada has been underway for some time, but the rate of change needed for success has been picking up even faster. The combined forces of the information revolution and globalization, and the speed at which these forces are changing the economic landscape, present unique opportunities and risks to all economies. Canada is particularly well placed to seize these opportunities.

An integrated approach is key to longer-term success in the new, global knowledge-based economy. The aim of this approach is to make Canada more competitive in the converging North American and global space by accentuating our strengths and carving out new areas of advantage rather than replicating others. The payoff to such a concerted approach should be significantly higher standards of living for Canadians and an improved quality of life – in short, making Canada the best place both to live and to work.

Fiscal Sustainability

• After two decades of deficits, the federal government is now in a period of surpluses. A key fiscal planning objective for the next few years is to ensure that a sustainable fiscal structure is put in place.

• The current slowdown in the U.S. economy raises concerns. It has been deeper and more significant than was expected only a few months ago. Given the size of our trading relationship with the U.S., this obviously has implications for Canada. It is thus essential to ensure that the fiscal structure put in place can cope with such unavoidable cyclical swings in the global economy. A healthy mix of strong fundamentals – fiscal surpluses, low inflation, tax cuts and forward-looking policies – means that Canada is better positioned to manage economic turbulence than it has been in decades.

• Making sure that the spending and revenue trends that the government puts in place are consistent with prudent forecasts of future economic development is key to establishing fiscal sustainability over the mandate.

• Over the last couple of years, several large, upward revisions to the economic forecast have provided the extra resources for the implementation of significant new initiatives. It is important to understand the reason for these positive fiscal surprises: forecasters under-estimated the pace and scope of Canada’s cyclical recovery. Future fiscal dividends have largely to come from growth in productivity above the rate assumed in the average private sector medium-term forecast and embedded in the 2000 Economic Statement and Budget Update.

Key Result: Fiscal Sustainability

The New Knowledge-based Economy

• Innovation is a key element required for success in the new knowledge-based economy. It is also an area where Canada faces a real challenge, since a nation’s potential for innovative activity is strongly linked to its research capacity. At the moment, Canada ranks 15^th among OECD countries in its investments in research and development as a percentage of GDP. Transforming all sectors of Canada’s economy into sectors of the new knowledge-based economy will require a major focus on innovation, particularly by the private sector. For its part, the government will provide appropriate support for basic research and development, and continue to develop a tax and policy regime supportive of entrepreneurship, innovation and risk-taking.

• Although Canada faces significant challenges in taking full advantage of opportunities provided by the new knowledge-based economy, there is now real momentum. The federal government has made significant new investments in basic research over the last four years. As well, the tax changes in the 2000 budget and 2000 Economic Statement and Budget Update have substantially improved incentives for entrepreneurship and innovation.

• Canada needs to ensure that capital markets are efficient and globally competitive to serve Canadian business and Canadian consumers well over the decade ahead and to support innovation and entrepreneurship. The financial services sector is both a key global sector of the new knowledge-based economy in its own right, and a key enabler of this economy and of approaches to doing business in all sectors of the economy. Leading-edge financial services are information-based, technology-driven and strategically focussed (often seeking global market share in niche areas). Innovative capital markets will be crucial to Canada’s future economic success.

• Finally, there is a need to ensure that government programs facilitate the adaptation of all sectors of the economy to this new environment.

Key Result: The New Knowledge-based Economy

 Social Advantage for Canada

• To succeed in the new knowledge-based economy and to sustain such success demands a focus on key social programs, and the values they represent, that support, educate and sustain a knowledge economy and society. The quality of communities, the quality of health care, the quality of education, the quality of the social safety net, and equality of opportunity all matter in creating world-class knowledge-based economies/societies. Creating a social advantage bolsters a country’s economic advantage. And strong productive economies provide the resources to re-invest continually in key social infrastructure. In short, successful knowledge economies are high quality-of-life societies.

• In the new knowledge-based economy, knowledge workers are a key resource. Access to a highly skilled, innovative labour force is increasingly a crucial competitive advantage. With the rapidly growing new economies come shifts in "employability skills" in all sectors of the economy. The challenge is not only to increase Canada’s labour pool of knowledge workers, but also to focus on the skills, retention and lifelong learning of those in the pool.

• This also means making substantial progress on a number of key current issues in social policy in order to provide

  • support for the implementation of the Health and Early Childhood Development Agreements;
  • sustainable system of transfers to provinces to foster a strong federation;
  • assistance in the development of the skills of Canadians; and
  • sustainability of social programs.

Key Result: Social Advantage for Canada

Global Advantage for Canada

• Globalization is not a new trend, but the interaction of "globalizing forces" with technology – particularly new information and communications technologies – has increased its pace and extended its scope over the last decade. It has fundamentally changed our concepts of the "effective marketplace" for goods and services, it is leading to the "death of distance," redefining ways of doing business, and has created a truly global market for capital. It has also created truly transnational firms, and now transnational NGOs. It is, in short, reshaping relations among citizens, firms, states and international organizations.

• Looking ahead over the mandate, Canada is well-positioned to play a leadership role in developing further the international "rules of the game," and in working to ensure that the new global economy provides advantages for Canada. As Chair of the G-20 and member of other fora, Canada will seek to forge consensus on reforms to increase global growth, financial stability and the sharing of the benefits of globalization. Canada will also work to strengthen the rules-based international trading system. It will pursue its trade and investment interests in negotiations, notably in the WTO and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and by the appropriate use of dispute settlement procedures.

• Branding matters. We believe that reaping the benefits of truly global markets will depend not only on a better policy environment, but on a much better appreciation by global investors and global markets of Canada’s advantages.

Key Result: Global Advantage for Canada

- Table of Contents - Previous - Next -