In a time of pocketbook issues, productivity has a public-relations problem

Open this photo in gallery:

Karl Oczkowski is a public relations and economic communications professional from Ottawa.

Productivity is the economic challenge of our times. But you wouldn’t know it from speaking to most Canadians. Indeed, outside of policy shops and academia, and maybe the readership of this paper’s business section, one would be hard-pressed to find any other Canadians who give two loonies about productivity. And it’s this reality of productivity apathy that will first need to be addressed before we can tackle the issue itself.

Surely, the first step in addressing a threat is identifying it, but Canadians, by and large, don’t tend to talk about the threat of low productivity at dinner parties. Instead, if they do choose to talk about the economy, they discuss how expensive groceries have become, how unaffordable housing continues to be and how little their wages seem to be rising, all while temporary foreign workers are in the headlines. This reflects our common tendency to care about issues to the degree we see ourselves reflected in them or feel affected by them.

For this reason, it’s no surprise that so far this year the government has tightened restrictions on temporary foreign workers, capped international student visas and lowered immigration targets for 2025, 2026 and 2027, while at the same time introducing its ambitious housing strategy. And for the same reason, it’s no surprise that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has himself chosen to focus most acutely on issues such as immigration, housing and the carbon tax, which hits close to home for many Canadians every time they go to the gas station. These are the pocketbook issues being talked about around the dinner table and in which Canadians see themselves reflected and affected. Politicians of all stripes know this, so they act on these issues to the detriment of our productivity problem.

The cruel irony, as readers will know, is that rising productivity could help address many of our challenges in dinner table economics. Greater productivity in the construction sector would allow for more affordable homes. And greater productivity in manufacturing would attract investment, spur growth and create better-paying jobs for countless Canadians – including new immigrants to Canada who are eager to contribute to our economy.

But our policy makers don’t talk about cruel ironies and aren’t interested in trying to convince Canadians that the downstream benefits of greater productivity are of real benefit to our standard of living. Instead, they prefer to tackle, in piecemeal fashion, the latest issue du jour, whether by responding to the rapid decline in support for immigration or creating codes of conduct as Canadians fume about the cost of groceries.

All this means we shouldn’t be optimistic about a focus on real solutions to our foundational productivity problem – not when a federal election seems increasingly likely. No, tackling that problem would require honest, effective communication about the importance of productivity, along with some courage to engage Canadians on topics such as gross domestic product, international investment, innovation or tax and regulatory reform, all the while persuading voters that they should care about these things.

These are hardly the relatable, simple issues that politicians of all stripes look for when crafting a good sound bite, and as they say in the world of PR, when you’re explaining, you’re losing. Unfortunately for us all, addressing the productivity problem will first be an exercise in communication and explanation, long before it is an exercise in economics.