We didn’t get much bang for our buck!.During the pandemic, despite high levels of government spending and debt accumulation, Canada’s economy underperformed compared to most other advanced countries, finds a new study published by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank. .While provinces and the federal government increased spending significantly during COVID, it’s now clear we didn’t get much bang for our buck. Among 40 industrialized countries in 2020, Canada had the fifth highest increase in government spending as a share of the economy, and between 2019 and 2021, the third largest increase in its total debt-to-GDP ratio, which means Canada accumulated debt at a higher rate than almost every other advanced country. .The economic and social disruption effects of the pandemic in Canada were severe and unprecedented. Yet from 2019 to 2022, among the same 40 countries Canada ranked 29th on per-person GDP growth (a common measure of prosperity) and had the second largest drop in employment in 2020. Canada’s economic performance during the pandemic was in contrast to other advanced countries that did much better. .People need to understand the effects of the pandemic responses, so they don’t repeat the same ineffective and costly policies in the future. Clearly, the Liberals are very poor financial managers. The policy implications of these results suggest that there was ultimately no one-size-fits-all successful pandemic response, and all countries appear to have a fair degree of variation in their performance. .Canada’s estimated real per-capita GDP growth was negative and Canada ranked 29th out of 40 IMF Advanced Economies and had the second-worst performance of the G7 countries over the period from 2019 to 2022..However, in the case of Canada, on average it accomplished mitigating the impact of COVID-19 via a relatively high vaccine uptake, but did so with a disproportionate social cost to personal rights and national cohesion which resulted in social disorder. The truck convoy arose in reaction to the administrative policy errors by the federal government. .Also, Canada’s performance in the senior long-term care sector by the provinces, reveals much room for improvement. The mortality rate for Canada did not fare well, coming in as the second highest in the list of 38 IMF Advanced Economies. Canada was particularly poor in protecting the elderly in its long-term care facilities, especially in the beginning. .In addition, Canada’s success in aspects of dealing with COVID-19 appears to have come at an exceptionally high economic price, with very negative short-term employment consequences. The longer-term economic effects in areas such as housing prices and inflation are problematic. More important in hindsight, will be a critical analysis of things where countries did not do well. In Canada's case, its weaker performance concerning its higher overall mortality rates, as well as the mortality toll in its long-term care sector needs to be carefully reviewed..The economic and fiscal disruption and associated effects of the pandemic in Canada and around the world were severe and unprecedented. The pandemic disrupted health, social, governmental, and economic systems..The bottom line is the Canadian record of responding to COVID-19 was administratively harsh in the wrong sectors, and economically quite poor in comparison to other counties. .Paul Forseth mostly lived in New Westminster, BC and was an officer of the Provincial Criminal and Family Courts for 22 years. From 1993 to 2006 he represented New Westminster-Coquitlam as federal MP. He is retired and now lives in Powell River BC.
