to ensure that older workers who wish to contribute to the labour force can still do so. aside from developing the skills of our workforce, we also need to remove as many barriers to mobility as possible. as i've noted, economic restructuring is happening in ontario, as it is across the country and around the world. to take full advantage of this restructuring, people need to be able to move. to this end, i was encouraged to see ontario signal its desire to join the investment and labour mobility agreement between alberta and british columbia - this would be a very helpful step by all three governments. it is also important to recognize that skills gained in one industry may well be easily transferred to another industry, with only a small amount of additional training. it is important for businesses and policy - makers to focus on this and not allow occupational licensing requirements to act as an unnecessary barrier to the transfer of labour. and of course, it is extremely important that we take steps to maximize the contributions of skilled immigrants to canada. we need to find ways to smooth the process of recognizing foreign training and credentials, and supplement them to meet the needs of the canadian economy, so these highly skilled people can take their place in the workforce. i have focused on the development of human resources in this section because it is a necessary though not sufficient - condition for ontario's future prosperity. in this vein, i'm glad to see there will be discussion of the irish experience, as that country's remarkable success was predicated on developing a skilled and adaptable workforce. while policies to get the most out of our " human " infrastructure are important, we also need to develop our physical infrastructure in order to reach our full potential. this critical infrastructure includes public assets, such as highways, public transit and transportation facilities, power, waterworks and waste water, schools, hospitals, and other facilities. it also includes private infrastructure, such as pipelines, rail, and telecommunications networks. having modern, reliable infrastructure in place allows businesses to invest with greater certainty, thus furthering the ability to adjust and compete in a changing global economy. ontario needs public policies that can support both public and private investment in infrastructure so that firms can become more productive. the key questions here are how to improve the efficiency of infrastructure investment, and how to finance that investment. there is evidence from other countries that public - private partnerships can both increase the efficiency of investments and support their financing. now is the right time to encourage partnerships between the government of

uncertainty about the production potential of our economy at this time of structural change, the bank is now monitoring a wide range of indicators for early - warning signs of pressure on capacity and prices. up to now, our inflation performance has been somewhat better than we had expected. while the increase in the total cpi over the past 12 months to january was 2. 3 %, our core rate of inflation ( excluding food, energy, and the effect of changes in indirect taxes ), at 1. 3 %, remains in the bottom half of the 1 to 3 % target range. this good inflation performance bodes well for the continued expansion of the canadian economy. but what remains to be seen is whether this expansion will bring with it strong productivity gains for canada similar to those witnessed in the united states. one thing is clear. the job of the bank of canada must be to keep inflation in canada low and stable. without that, we will be risking both the economic expansion and the potential productivity gains.