Midweek podcast: Dominic Barton on Canada's growth
The blueprint for the future of the Canadian economy will involve tough choices and a limited number of recommendations, according to the chair of Canada's Advisory Council on Economic Growth.
"This notion of choices versus peanut butter," Dominic Barton told The House. "The tendency is to have a whole slew of different things we put in and then the implementation is always the challenge. So I think the sense is that we have to make choices. That means we're not talking about some things that people would like us to talk about."
Barton is chairing the advisory council Finance Minister Bill Morneau appointed in March. The 14-member group is tasked with setting a strategy that will be delivered by the end of the year.
"We're not going to write a big full report at once. Let's focus on a few to get them ready for when the government can digest them or wants to take them on, if you will," Barton said.
Barton added that the council is currently hammering away at the first three recommendations.
"We've got a further six in the next stage of the pipeline and then we've got another group of six after that that we're pushing."
That's kind of the theme: choices, boldness, joint private-public... and at the end of the day we should be very ambitious."- Dominic Barton, chair of Canada's Advisory Council on Economic Growth
Barton mentioned the agriculture and food sector, health care, international trade and infrastructure as areas that can and should be developed to generate growth. The global managing director of consulting firm McKinsey & Co. added that greater public-private collaboration would be crucial in the future.
He also hinted that eliminating regulations in certain sectors would be part of his prescription for the economy.
Barton is addressing the Public Policy Forum's Growth Summit on Wednesday night in Ottawa.
Inside Donald Trump's efforts to save his campaign
It's been a rough few days for Donald Trump.
Now the Republican nominee for president is trying to salvage his campaign, and he's doing so in state he must win to keep his hopes of taking the White House alive: Florida.
The host of The House, Chris Hall, is in Florida this week and he joined the podcast from a Trump rally where supporters were waiting for the Republican nominee to take the stage.