Year of Plenty

It was another bountiful year for Canada's economy as it was for the U.S. (see BUSINESS). Canada's economic boss, Trade and Commerce Minister C. D. Howe, surveying the business-performance charts last week, found that every vital line--production, employment, income and investment--continued sharply upward during 1956.

P: Canada's gross national product soared to $29.5 billion, an increase of more than 10%. The year's growth matched the 1955 rate, and raised the country's production to a level six times as high as it was 20 years ago.

P: Employment passed a record total of 5,700,000 jobs, while unemployment (mostly transient labor moving from one job to the next) dropped to a mere 1% of the national labor force (v. 3% in 1955).

P: Personal income after taxes rose 9% during the year, more than offsetting the increase in living costs (up 3%). As a result, Canadians not only bought more goods but saved more money.

P: The pace of Canada's great industrial expansion quickened. Investors poured $7.5 billion into capital expenditures, notably on oil and gas development, new uranium, copper and nickel mines, and a 20% expansion of the nation's steelmaking capacity. The capital outlay was 15% greater than in 1955 and the annual increase was the sharpest since the all-out years of World War II.

In their prosperity, Canada's consumers and businessmen developed a tremendous foreign-buying urge. They spent a record $5.8 billion outside their country for consumer goods and industrial equipment, running up an import bill that was a full $1 billion higher than the country's export earnings. Such a trade deficit could have been ruinous to a less prosperous country, but Canada took it in stride: the heavy flow of foreign (mostly U.S.) investment offset the drain on gold and dollar reserves. As the year ended, Canada's currency position was so strong that the Canadian dollar rose in value to more than $1.04 U.S., a 23-year high.

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