A dispute has erupted among statisticians about whether Canada has been more productive than previously reported by Statistics Canada. That’s an interesting argument, but a better question is how Canada can be even more productive in the years ahead.

A new study co-authored by leading Canadian economist Erwin Diewert says Statistics Canada has it all wrong: Our productivity hasn’t been growing by a sluggish 0.28 per cent per year over the past half-century, as the number-crunching agency has claimed, but in fact by a more muscular 1.03 per cent. StatsCan disputes the professor, saying his estimate can’t be compared with numbers provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and that its own standards measure up internationally.