On November 14, 2025, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute hosted a panel in Ottawa as part of its ongoing research series on “Government Productivity and Value for Money.”
In a panel moderated by Peter Copeland, deputy director of domestic policy at MLI, Jean-François Perrault, chief economist at Scotiabank, Tim Sargent, director of domestic policy at MLI, Munir Sheikh, research professor at Carleton University, and Stephen Tapp, CEO and chief economist at the Centre for the Study of Living Standards. shared their insights from the project’s first two reports: Capturing Public Sector Productivity: Overview and Conceptual Approach and Assessing the Size and Productivity of Governments in Canada.
Together, these studies provide the most comprehensive look yet at how Canada’s government sector has expanded – in employment, spending, and scope – and how to measure what taxpayers receive in return. The discussion introduced MLI’s new Size of Government Index (SGI) and Government Productivity Index (GPI), explored key data trends from 1997–2024, and examined cross-sector differences in productivity across health, education, and government services.
Panellists also examined the tension between a growing public sector and stagnating productivity and how evidence-based measurement can strengthen accountability, fiscal discipline, and long-term prosperity.
