Mind the Gaps - How Atlantic Canada can keep up the momentum

It was indicative of a sentiment common back then in the rest of Canada: The Atlantic provinces were the poor cousins of Confederation and a drain on the rest of the country. [...] To focus on the areas of most concern, says Andrew Sharpe, president of the Centre for the Study of Living Standards and architect of the Momentum Index, it’s important to consider both momentum and Atlantic Canada’s perfor- mance compared to the country as a whole. [...] In fact, numbers released since those badly may be the of the Momentum Index show employment income growing biggest problem slightly faster in 2021 in Atlantic Canada than the country as a revealed by the whole.3 But the economy in Atlantic Canada still has a way to Momentum Index go — real GDP per capita, the most basic measure of output, sits at 87 percent of the national average (although it ha. [...] In a March 2021 bulletin, said the two the Atlantic Economic Council noted that firms in the region biggest obstacles trailed the rest of the country in adopting business intelligence to innovation technologies like cloud computing and big data analytics were a lack tools, and that it lags in using Internet of Things technologies, of skills and cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.6 It put th. [...] If Atlantic Canada can maintain its momentum on housing starts and close the considerable gap with the rest of Canada, that will help build on still other advantages the Momentum Index revealed — the region’s life satisfaction scores, the sense of belonging to the community that its people report — and draw yet more population and investment to the region.