Low productivity levels present an enormous challenge for Canada’s future economic prosperity. In 2012, Canada’s level of labour productivity was US$42, much lower than that of the United States, at US$52. This earned Canada a disappointing 13th place among its 16 peer countries on the level of labour productivity. Only Finland, Switzerland, and Japan were lower. Worse still, Canada’s labour productivity level has fallen to 80 per cent of the U.S. level from a high of 91 per cent in the mid-1980s. Despite a broad and growing consensus that Canadian productivity needs to be improved, the gap with the U.S. is widening, not narrowing.