New policy directions for Nova Scotia

The user manual is in effect an education tool to better understand the goals and objectives of the reports, the research approaches and techniques used, and how to interpret the messages that the reports are conveying. [...] To ease the transition from more than 12 years of research and measurement to the application of the GPI in the policy arena, this ‘user manual’ attempts to make transparent a few of the key assumptions, principles, and structural foundations of the Nova Scotia Genuine Progress Index, to cite examples of where the GPI perspective has already informed certain policies and initiatives in recent year [...] The GDP aggregates the economic value of the total quantity of all goods and services produced in the market economy, and also reflects the total amount of money earned and spent in the market economy. [...] Therefore the purpose of the GPI is both to replace the misused GDP as a measure of wellbeing and progress, and to restore the GDP to GENUINE PROGRESS INDEX. [...] That study warned of unsustainable trends in the economy—like the fact that the rate of debt growth during the so called economic boom period of the previous decade had massively outpaced the rate of income growth for 80% of Canadian households, thus threatening the ability of many households to manage and service their debt.