Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe

Health systems in transition Canada 7
1.2 Economic context
Canada is an advanced industrial economy with a substantial natural resource
base. Measured in terms of per capita wealth, the country ranks among the
richest nations in the world. In terms of income inequality as measured by
the Gini coefficient, disposable incomes in Canada are more equal than in
the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia but less equal than in
Sweden and its Nordic neighbours, and the same as in France (UNDP, 2010).
On the overall Human Development Index calculated by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP, 2011), Canada ranked slightly below
Australia (second) and the United States (fourth), but above Sweden, France
and the United Kingdom in 2010 (see Table 1.2).
During the last five years, Canada’s economic performance has been among
the strongest in the OECD. Similar to Australia, Canada suffered less than most
Western European nations and the United States from the global recession that
began in 2008. Moreover, as a major exporter of resources, including oil and gas
as well as foodstuffs, the country has benefited from the recent spike upwards
in global commodity prices. As a result, the Canadian dollar (like the Australian
dollar) has appreciated against both the United States dollar and the euro since
the recession beginning in 2008. In the years following, unemployment rates in
the country are also lower than those in the United States, the United Kingdom,
France and Sweden (Table 1.5).
Despite this positive economic performance, health care costs continue to
grow at rates that exceed government revenue growth, raising concerns about
the future fiscal sustainability of public health care (OECD, 2010b). However,
this is partly due to systematic tax cutting by federal and provincial governments.
As a consequence, the ratio of federal tax revenues to gross domestic product
(GDP), for example, declined from 14.6% in 1997–1998 to 13.7% by 2006–2007
(Ruggeri & Watson, 2008).