It’s quite a challenge to conventional thinking but Stéfane Marion is optimistic about the upcoming federal budget, even though he predicts the deficit will hit $100 billion .

The chief economist of National Bank Financial has been a vocal critic of what he calls the “Made in Canada sub-optimal policies” that led to a “lost decade.”

In a series of research notes , he has detailed meticulously the results of federal government policy: stagnating GDP per capita numbers; capital stock levels in manufacturing that are no higher than when NAFTA was negotiated in 1990; the addition of layers of regulation (there are now 320,000 regulations impacting companies, 110,000 in the manufacturing sector alone); and, an absolute drop in factory output, despite 30 per cent population growth.

Marion

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