Life in Canada

"The effects of caffeine are well-known and as an 8.4 oz can of Red Bull contains about the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee (80 mg), it should be treated accordingly," Red Bull said in an emailed statement to Reuters Health.



Photograph by: Thinkstock, canada.com

In a new report, a large group of American doctors urge kids and teens to avoid energy drinks and only consume sports drinks in limited amount.

The recommendations come in the wake of a national debate over energy drinks, which experts fear may have side effects.

"Children never need energy drinks," said Dr. Holly Benjamin, of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who worked on the new report. "They contain caffeine and other stimulant substances that aren't nutritional, so you don't need them."

And kids might be more vulnerable to the contents of energy drinks than grownups.

"If you drink them on a regular basis, it stresses the body," Benjamin told Reuters Health. "You don't really want to stress the body of a person that's growing."

For the new recommendations, published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers went through earlier studies and reports on both energy drinks and sports drinks, which don't contain any stimulants.

They note that energy drinks contain a jumble of ingredients -- including vitamins and herbal extracts -- with possible side effects that aren't always well understood.

While there aren't many documented cases of harm directly linked to the beverages, stimulants can disturb the heart's rhythm and may lead to seizures in very rare cases, Benjamin said.

Recently, she saw a 15-year-old boy with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder who came into the hospital with a seizure after having drunk two 24-ounce bottles of Mountain Dew, a soft drink that contains caffeine.

The boy was already taking stimulant ADHD medication, and the extra caffeine in principle might have pushed him over the edge, according to Benjamin.

"You just never know," she said. "It's definitely a concern."

Earlier this year, Pediatrics published another review of the literature on energy drinks.

In it, Florida pediatricians described cases of seizures, delusions, heart problems and kidney or liver damage in people who had drunk one or more non-alcoholic energy drinks -- including brands like Red Bull, Spike Shooter and Redline.

While they acknowledged that such cases are very rare, and can't be conclusively linked to the drinks, they urged caution, especially in kids with medical conditions.

U.S. sales of non-alcoholic energy drinks are expected to hit $9 billion this year, with children and young adults accounting for half the market.

Manufacturers claim their products will enhance both mental and physical performance, and were quick to downplay the February report.

"The effects of caffeine are well-known and as an 8.4 oz can of Red Bull contains about the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee (80 mg), it should be treated accordingly," Red Bull said in an emailed statement to Reuters Health.

Benjamin said that for most kids, water is the best thing to quench their thirst. If they happen to be young athletes training hard, a sports drink might be helpful, too, because it contains sugar.

But for kids who lead less-active lives, sports and energy drinks might just serve to pile on extra pounds, fueling the national obesity epidemic.

While she acknowledged that more research is needed, Benjamin said the safest thing to drink is water.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, online May 30, 2011.

Greenhouse gas inventory prepared by government shows overall drop, ignores increase from oilsands

The federal government has acknowledged it deliberately excluded data indicating a 20-per-cent increase in annual pollution from Canada's oilsands industry in 2009 from a recent 567-page report on climate change that it was required to submit to the United Nations.

The numbers, uncovered by Postmedia News,whom I applaud, were left out of the report, a national inventory on Canada's greenhouse gas pollution. It revealed a six-per-cent drop in annual emissions for the entire economy from 2008 to 2009, but does not directly show the extent of pollution from the oilsands production, which is greater than the greenhouse gas emissions of all the cars driven on Canadian roads.

The data also indicated that emissions per barrel of oil produced by the sector is increasing, despite claims made by the industry in an advertising campaign.

"The oilsands remain Canada's fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas pollution, and they're the subject of a huge amount of attention and scrutiny in Canada and internationally," said Clare Demerse, director of climate change at the Pembina Institute, an Alberta-based environmental research group. "So it's very disappointing to see Environment Canada publish a 500-page report that leaves out these critical numbers -especially when last year's edition included them."

Overall, Environment Canada said that the oilsands industry was responsible for about 6.5 per cent of Canada's annual greenhouse gas emissions in 2009, up from five per cent in 2008. This also indicates a growth in emissions that is close to about 300 per cent since 1990, which cancel out many reductions in pollution from other economic sectors.

The report attributes the six-per-cent decrease in Canada's overall emissions to the economic slowdown, but it also credits efforts by the Ontario government to reduce production of coal-fired electricity as a significant factor.

Environment Canada provided the oilsands numbers in response to questions from Postmedia News about why it had omitted the information from its report after publishing more detailed data in previous years.

A department spokesman explained that "some" of the information was still available in the latest report, which still meets Canada's reporting obligations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

"The information is presented in this way to be consistent with UNFCCC reporting requirements, which are divided into broad, international sectors," wrote Mark Johnson in an e-mail.

He was not immediately able to answer questions about who made the decision to exclude the numbers from the oilsands or provide a detailed explanation about changes in emissions.

An industry spokesman said it favoured more transparency from the government, suggesting that some of the figures may be misleading because of changes in methods used to identify and calculate emissions.

"We report the information to them, and they choose to pass it on -they must pass it on the UN. But then they choose how to disclose it and put it out there," said Greg Stringham, vice-president of oilsands and markets at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

Environment Canada's re-port recognizes that climate change is occurring, mainly due to an increase in heattrapping gases in the atmosphere.

The objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize these emissions in order to prevent dangerous changes to the climate.

Critics have suggested the Harper government is deliberately trying to delay international action to fight climate change, following revelations, reported last fall by Postmedia News, that it had set up a partnership with the Alberta government, industry and several federal departments to fight pollutionreduction policies from other countries that target the oilsands through lobbying and public relations.

Canada gets failing grade for lax enforcement of anti-bribery laws

OTTAWA - Canada has been singled out as the only country in the G7 that's failing to enforce anti-bribery rules against its businesses operating abroad.

For the seventh year in a row, Transparency International has ranked Canada as having "little or no enforcement," despite Canada's signature on an OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. I am not surprised since transparency is not prevalent even at Canadian Government levels

Canada is by far the largest exporter among the 21 countries listed by Transparency International as failing to live up to their convention promises.

The watchdog group ranks Canada with other laggards such as Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece and Slovenia, but also Australia, New Zealand and Israel.

Transparency International's seventh annual report laments a lack of overall movement among the 38 signatories to the anti-bribery convention a decade after it was adopted and points the finger at a lack of political will from the top in countries such as Canada.

Canada has had only a single bribery conviction in the last decade, but the report notes that 23 investigations were started last year — prompting hope that Canada may start showing real enforcement teeth.

LONDON, United Kingdom (AP) --

BP has struck a deal to receive around $1 billion from one of its minority partners in the blown-out Gulf of Mexico well, raising hopes it will successfully pursue other companies involved and reduce its bill for the disaster.

BP PLC said Thursday that MOEX Offshore 2007 LLC, which had a 10 percent interest in the Macondo well, has agreed to pay $1.065 billion to settle all claims between the companies over the accident on the Deepwater Horizon rig.

Under the settlement, MOEX, a unit of Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co., agreed to recognize findings by the U.S. Presidential Commission that the accident "was the result of a number of separate risk factors, oversights and outright mistakes by multiple parties and a number of causes."

It also recognized findings from the U.S. Coast Guard that "the safety management systems of both Transocean and its Deepwater Horizon rig had significant deficiencies that rendered them ineffective in preventing the accident."

Shares in BP closed 2.7 percent higher at 460 pence ($7.50) after analysts said the deal puts pressure on BP's other minority partner, Anadarko, to reach a similar deal and leaves rig operator Transocean open to a combined assault for compensation.

Evolution Securities analyst Richard Griffith said success on those fronts would reduce his estimate of BP's total liabilities, which currently stands at $25-30 billion.

"Critically Mitsui has joined BP in recognising that the accident was the consequence of a number of risks and actions by multiple parties," said Griffith. "Perhaps more significantly is the broader recognition that Transocean's safety management systems on the rig were deficient and where this could lead BP and its licence partners to pursue Transocean for compensation thus reducing the overall size of the liability net to BP."

Jonathan Jackson, head of equities at Killik & Co., said he was "slightly disappointed" by the size of the settlement, but the news was positive.

"It is the first time that a company involved in the well has joined BP in helping to meet the cost of the accident and it appears to reinforce the likelihood that BP will not be found grossly negligent, an outcome that would bring a much larger liability under the Clean Water Act," Jackson said.

He added that BP might reach a global settlement that rolls up into a single deal the liability for fines, damages and other penalties.

BP said Friday that it would continue to pursue Texas-based Anadarko, which had a 25 percent interest in the well, Switzerland-based Transocean and cement contractor Halliburton to pay their share of billions of dollars in cleanup costs, oil-spill damages and pollution fines.

MOEX has also filed cross-claims against Transocean and Halliburton, which BP noted Friday "designed and pumped the unstable cement that the Presidential Commission found was a key cause of the accident."

However, Transocean said the Deepwater Horizon rig was in "sound working condition" and had passed inspections by the Coast Guard.

"As the owner and operator of the Macondo well, BP has clear financial incentives to assign blame to other parties, but its public posturing is not supported by the body of evidence in this matter," the company said in an emailed statement. "Government investigations have rightly concluded that the Macondo incident was caused by a failure of the cement in the well."

BP has already booked a $32.2 billion charge to cover the long-term costs of the Gulf spill. It is targeting $30 billion in asset sales by the end of the year to shore up funds.

BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley said that Mitsui "is showing great corporate citizenship in standing behind its affiliate and making a contribution to meet the costs of this tragic accident.

"We call on the other parties involved in the Macondo well to follow the lead of the MOEX and Mitsui parties," he added in a statement.

The settlement from MOEX will immediately be paid into the $20 billion trust BP has established to meet individual, business and government claims relating to last year's oil spill.

MOEX had filed a lawsuit in New Orleans on the April 20 anniversary of the Gulf spill, asking a federal judge to declare it was not responsible for the damages and cleanup costs resulting from the worst off-shore oil spill in U.S. history. MOEX was joined by Anadarko in suing BP, with both companies claiming that London-based BP was responsible for the blow-out and the spill.

BP said that the payment from MOEX announced Friday — to be paid by its parent company, MOEX USA Corp. — was not an admission of liability by any party regarding the accident. The companies agreed to drop mutual claims against each other.

The news of the settlement coincided with a report from London-based financial services group Investec calling on BP's board to demerge the company into three separate groups — focused on the United States, Britain and emerging countries.

OTTAWA - Tightening a belt is tricky when you have to wrap it around 39 people.

Stephen Harper's biggest cabinet ever will have to do some sucking in of its collective gut if the Conservatives are serious about trimming the fat.

The annual salary bill for all the ministers and junior ministers appointed last week is about $9 million — the largest on record.

That's at a time when the Conservatives are looking to slash $4 billion from the bureaucracy and billions more in the coming years to balance the books.

The prime minister's team rivals the largest cabinets of Brian Mulroney and Paul Martin.

According to 2011 figures on Parliament's website, an ordinary MP draws a base salary of $157,731 per year. As prime minister, Harper gets double that plus a car allowance.

Still, Harper's $317,574 salary to run the country is modest compared with what bank presidents and top executives in the private sector make.

Ministers get $75,516 atop their MP base salary, plus a car allowance. Ministers of state get an extra $56,637, but no car allowance.

Marjory LeBreton gets $132,300 for being a senator and another $75,500 for her role as leader of the government in the Senate.

So with one prime minister, 25 ministers, 11 ministers of state, and government senate and house leaders, it all works out to roughly $9 million in salaries and perks and that is without the staff

The Conservatives quietly approved increases in the maximum salaries political staff are entitled to receive.

The changes went into effect April 1, even though Harper has announced budget cuts to eliminate the federal deficit one year ahead of schedule, in 2014-15.

The prime minister said that feat would be achieved "by controlling spending and cutting waste."

Whether a staffer actually receives the maximum allowable salary is left up to the discretion of each minister, who must still keep within an overall office budget.

But ministers will have a little more money to play with since the government has decreed that their offices should no longer have to foot the bill for international travel by ministers, their staff and parliamentary secretaries. Those costs will now be absorbed by government departments instead.

The Prime Minister's Office says cabinet salaries are largely covered by MPs' regular wages.

"Almost two thirds of your cost is actually their salaries as MPs, which would have to be paid whether or not they're in cabinet," spokesman Andrew MacDougall said in an email.

Harper has also defended his beefed-up bench.

"I think it's important to know when you're talking about austerity, that this government has reduced ministerial budgets significantly," he said after his cabinet was sworn in at Rideau Hall.

"So the question here is not cost. The question is making sure that we have a ministry that is broad, representative of the country and tries to use people's talents to the maximum. ...

"I think it would be a mistake to try and have a smaller cabinet that would make less use of people."

Harper's cabinet ranks in size with Mulroney and Martin's 39-member teams.

Derek Fildebrandt of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says his issue isn't so much with what cabinet ministers make, but with the pensions they go on to collect at age 55.

"We're fine that they're decently compensated," Fildebrandt said.

"They're not outrageously compensated. They're well compensated, but they're not outrageously compensated. But pension-wise, they are outrageously compensated."

The group says that for every $1 an MP puts into their pension plan, taxpayers contribute another $4.

Fildebrandt also questioned defeated MPs' severance packages.

Defeated Conservative cabinet minister Josee Verner wasn't in the House of Commons long enough to get a pension. But like all MPs who have served fewer than six years, she qualifies for a severance equal to half her salary.

Verner's nearly $117,000 golden parachute may ease her jump to the Red Chamber — where she will earn $132,300 a year as one of Harper's three new senators.

Compare that to what a typical Canadian family makes. The median after-tax income of a family of two is $63,900, according to Statistics Canada.

I guess we got what we deserve.. again?

Modern life is 'producing a generation of weaklings', claims research as physical strength declines in 10-year-olds

A shift away from outdoor activities has made children weaker compared to previous generations, research reveals. Photograph: Andrew Payne /Alamy
Children are becoming weaker, less muscular and unable to do physical tasks that previous generations found simple, research has revealed.

As a generation dedicated to online pursuits grows up, 10-year-olds can do fewer sit-ups and are less able to hang from wall bars in a gym. Arm strength has declined in that age group, as has their ability to grip an object firmly.

The findings, published in the child health journal Acta Paediatrica, have led to fresh concern about the impact on children's health caused by the shift away from outdoor activities.

Academics led by Dr Gavin Sandercock, a children's fitness expert at Essex University, studied how strong a group of 315 Essex 10-year-olds in 2008 were compared with 309 children the same age in 1998. They found that:

■ The number of sit-ups 10-year-olds can do declined by 27.1% between 1998 and 2008

■ Arm strength fell by 26% and grip strength by 7%

■ While one in 20 children in 1998 could not hold their own weight when hanging from wall bars, one in 10 could not do so in 2008.

"This is probably due to changes in activity patterns among English 10-year-olds, such as taking part in fewer activities like rope-climbing in PE and tree-climbing for fun," Sandercock said. "Typically, these activities boosted children's strength, making them able to lift and hold their own bodyweight."

The fact that 10% could not do the wall bars test and another 10% refused to try was "really shocking", he added. "That probably shows that climbing and holding their own weight was something they hadn't done before."

Previous research has already shown that children are becoming more unfit, less active and more sedentary and, in many cases, heavier than before.

But the new study also found that children in 2008 had the same body mass index (BMI) as those a decade earlier. Lead author Daniel Cohen, of London Metropolitan University, said this meant that, given their declining strength, the bodies of the recent test group are likely to contain more fat and less muscle then their predecessors. "That's really worrying from a health point of view. It's good news that their BMI hasn't risen, but worrying that pound for pound they're weaker and probably carrying more fat," said Sandercock.

The authors want ministers to reduce their reliance on the National Child Measurement Programme, which surveys primary schoolchildren's BMI, and introduce fitness testing in all schools – a call made last year by the then-chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson.

"Climbing trees and ropes used to be standard practice for children, but school authorities and 'health and safety' have contrived to knock the sap out of our children," said Tam Fry of the Child Growth Foundation.

"Falling off a branch used to be a good lesson in picking yourself up and learning to climb better. Now fear of litigation stops the child climbing in the first place."

He added: "Fitness tests may or may not be appropriate, but Sandercock should not be discouraging the use of BMI measurements."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said the government had introduced several programmes promoting active lifestyles among the young, and the health survey for England reported back on physical activity levels.

I fear for the young and their cowardly parenting!

Creswell memorial stone to mark 1944 Canadian crash


A memorial stone to mark the loss of five Canadian aircrew whose plane crashed in 1944 has been unveiled near the Nottinghamshire-Derbyshire border.

On 4 August 1944, the Wellington bomber took off with its crew on a training flight from RAF Gamston near Retford but crash-landed near Creswell.

Creswell resident Joseph Plant left money for the memorial in his will.

The Canadian High Commissioner attended and a Lancaster bomber was due to fly past to conclude the ceremony.

Due to bad weather conditions, the fly-past had to be cancelled.

Gerald Plant, Joseph Plant's brother, said: "We have been working hard to fulfil the wishes of my late brother.

"All of the Canadian relatives of the airmen have been contacted and at least 20 are due to travel to Britain for the event."

Earlier in the week, the relatives also visited the graves of the airmen at Harrogate Cemetery and Gamston airfield from where the crew flew.

Col Paul Keddy, air force advisor to the UK at the High Commission of Canada, said: "The high commission is extremely grateful for the recognition this event will provide for our brave Canadian airmen."

Fifteen per cent of Canadian homeowners took money out of their homes last year, at an average amount of $30,000, new data showed Wednesday. It took years to build up this equity and now..well..time will tell

New 'massaged data' from the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals Wednesday showed that Canadians took out $26 billion worth of equity from their homes in 2010, an increase on the $20 billion taken out in 2009.

The most popular use for those funds was home renovations, with 36 per cent of the 2,000 Canadians the group surveyed for the report saying that was their plans for the money they withdrew.

But investments (28 per cent) replaced debt consolidation (19 per cent) as the number two use of home equity takeout.

Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty are two high profile names who have repeatedly voiced concerns over Canadians' debt loads in recent months.

On average, Canadian homeowners have $222,000 in home equity, equal to 66 per cent of the value of their homes.

Approximately three million Canadians have no debt on their homes. And the report estimates that 79 per cent of mortgage holders have at least 25 per cent worth of equity in their homes, and roughly three per cent have "negative equity" — meaning they owe more on their home than it would be worth if they sold it.

The average down payment for a home purchased in the last 12 months was 30 per cent, up from 26 per cent for homes purchased two years ago.

Criminal networks that use the Internet to facilitate their scams are finding a virtual haven in Canada, according to a new study. In my view, the Canadian public need to be educated in these matters.

“Canada is moving up in what may be called Top Ten Badness list,” said Patrik Runald, a security specialist with Websense, a multinational corporation based in California.

The content-filtering company now ranks Canada as the sixth most likely country to host servers running malicious programs, up from 13th the year before.

Websites engaged in “phishing” – a scam in which a hacker uses email to trick people into disclosing passwords or other personal information, usually to get more information – are said to have tripled in Canada within the past year. Command-and-control networks used by one machine to enslave others – known as “Botnets” – are said to have increased 50 per cent.

This sort of invisible activity amounts to big business. Phishing, botnets, and other such “malware” lay the groundwork for large-scale theft of money and identity. Popular consumer programs such as Air Miles and Sony PlayStation’s online gaming service have lately made headlines after being pillaged by hackers in search of patrons’ personal information.

While the world’s biggest hacking gangs remain largely based in Eastern Europe and China, they frequently disguise their aims and identities by setting up operations in the West, usually by sneaking their programs onto legitimate servers.

The latest threat survey by Websense, a NASDAQ-traded company that sells software that filters Web content, is to be released on Tuesday. The company says it gets its data by scouring a couple of billion Web pages daily.

The United States remains the No. 1 country on WebSense’s threat list, followed by France, Russia, Germany and China.

Washington has lately hired hundreds of police and prosecutors to deal with U.S. cyber crime. This stepped-up enforcement may now be prompting criminals to set up shop on servers north of the border.

“If they have big-profile takedowns in the U.S., the hackers are shying away a little bit,” said Mr. Runald. But “they don't want to move to a country with a shadier reputation.”

Canadian-based sites, he said, invite less scrutiny from anti-virus programs than sites based in, say, Romania and the Ukraine.

While the scope of crime operations are international, Canadian consumers will be more likely to fall victim to phishing if crime gangs take root in Canada. “These are servers Canadians are going to on a daily, monthly, weekly basis,” Mr. Runald said. “Most of the traffic to Canadian servers are from Canadians.”

Experts say the survey findings stand to reason, although they caution cyber criminals migrate from one jurisdiction to another for a host of reasons. “These things shift around based on a vulnerability that may exist,” said Rafel Rohozinsky, a senior fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs. “Cyber criminals tend to move in tribes.”

Mr. Rohozinsky, who also heads a private corporation known as the SecDev group, pointed out that Ottawa has been dragging its feet on cyber security.

The federal government announced its strategy only last year, long after other G8 countries began investing heavily in tackling the problem, partly because successive minority governments had made the esoteric subject of cyber security a non-starter of an issue in Canada. The new Conservative majority government now has the clout to tackle the issue, if it chooses to do so, Mr. Rohozinsky said.

Canada's Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, last week spoke out about an “alarming trend towards ever-bigger data breaches,” and called for new laws that would impose fines on companies that don’t do enough to safeguard personal information from hackers.

Apathy reigns once more and would the people of Canada ever be told by this TRANSPARENT government...smile

Canadian firms' poor record of investment stretches back 40 years: report

OTTAWA - The Conference Board has issued a stinging indictment on how little Canadian firms invest in making themselves more productive. I wonder how current Harper will react if at all.... recall 'no-one can tell him anything'

Under-investment in new equipment and machinery has been a problem stretching back at least 40 years, and Canadians have paid a heavy price, the think-tank says.

The Conference Board is not the first to point out that Canada lags behind many advanced economies in terms of productivity improvements.

But the new analysis released early Friday shows how long the practice has been going on and finds an almost perfect correlation between low investment and low productivity.

On average, Canada's investment in machinery and equipment as a share of gross domestic product was the second lowest among peer countries in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Only France was worse.

While, investment picked up in the 2000s in response to the loonie's burgeoning purchasing power, it still leaves Canada 11th among a group of 16 peer countries that include the U.S., Japan, Australia and about a dozen European nations.

Canada ranks 12th among its peer group in productivity.

More specifically, the report argues that the paucity of investment in information and communications, including computers, has been Canada's principal downfall. It says investment in communications technology is critical to a business' operations in today's market, given the profusion of Internet and broadband networks and the growing use of smartphones.

"On the surface, Canada seems to be doing well (economically)," says chief economist Glen Hodgson.

"But let's not get too hung up about what's happened over the last four quarters or even a few years. Look at the 25 year pattern and that clearly has shown up in terms of real income ... where Canada has fallen behind (the U.S.)."

Low productivity was also a reason the loonie was low throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s, Hodgson says.

One reason Canada has done relatively well in recent years, he says, is because it has lucked into an extended period of hyper-demand and prices for commodities that Canada has in abundance. Even so, the economy should be performing better, a point that has also been made by Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney.

The central banker has pin-pointed low productivity as the main culprit for why it expects the economy to grow at a relatively tame two per cent or so once it completes its backfill from the recession.

The Conference Board report comes at a time when the issue of corporate taxes is a key demarcation point among the parties in the election campaign, with the Conservatives favouring lower taxes to boost investment and the opposition parties calling for the rate to be hiked.

Labour economists such as Jim Stanford and Erin Weir, as well as the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, have published charts showing investments did not increase as combined federal-provincial corporate tax rates slid from about 42 per cent at the turn of the century to the current 28 per cent.

As well, governments eliminated the capital tax, and introduced investment-inducing benefits, such as tax write-offs and the elimination of import duties on machinery and equipment.

The perceived lack of payoff for the many carrots thrown at firms has frustrated policy makers. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has on several occasions urged firms to play their part.

"We need the private sector to continue to step up, start to invest ... to help create more jobs than we've seen in Canada, more investment in machinery and equipment," he said in response to a poor exports data last fall.

Hodgson says the issue of why Canadian firms have lagged behind for such a long time is complex, but he believes most business decisions are rational.

"It's not a question of blame. We had a whole combination of things from a weak dollar to some barriers like capital taxes, so under the circumstances it was rational not to go out and invest, when you could still compete with the dollar at 70 or 75 cents (US)," he explained.

Those circumstances have come full circle, he adds, and he believes businesses will alter their behaviour as well.

"We've seen some evidence of a change, but it's early days. You change a tax policy and it's going to take a while before you see any consequence in terms of investment behaviour."