Living standards up by 2001: economists

Continued economic growth combined with cuts to personal income taxes will team up to boost our living standards over the next few years, according to a new report from the TD Bank. This is good news, especially for those who haven’t shared in the booming growth of the last couple of years.

The forecast marks a turnaround from most of the 1990s, which was a disappointing decade in terms of the living standards of Canadians, especially when compared to our American cousins. Our living standards actually fell during the last decade, as many people can attest. Between 1990 and 1999, real personal disposable income per capita in Canada is estimated to have declined by 0.3 per cent per year.

Economists attribute this weak performance to a poor record of job creation and a rising share of personal incomes going to income taxes. In contrast, in the United States, per capita disposable incomes increased at a rapid rate – almost 2 per cent per year in U.S.-dollar terms -during the decade.