What's the cure for Canada's ailing economy?
How would you deal with the low dollar and record-low oil prices?
Canada's economy is off to a rough start this year. A low dollar, record-low oil prices and global turmoil have all taken their toll.
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When it comes to the economy, what's a poor prime minister to do?
- Good day for the dollar and oil
- Canadians hold onto their cash as they wait out volatile markets
What's the cure for Canada's ailing economy?
Readers sent in dozen of suggestions in our latest CBC Forum — a live, hosted discussion about stories of national interest.
Here are ten of them, in no particular order.
(Please note that usernames are not necessarily the names of commenters. Some comments have been altered to correct spelling and to conform to CBC style. Click on the username to see the complete comment in the blog format.)
1. High-speed rail
"Time to seriously consider a high-speed rail line from Thunder Bay to Calgary/Edmonton to start, with plans to push through the Rockies and into Quebec later on. A high-speed rail line would revolutionize this country the same way the original rail did." — Douglas Drouin
2. Eliminate raw exports
3. Allow early access to RRSPs
"How about allowing a one-time $12,000 withdrawal tax free to get some money flowing?" — Iracselwon
4. Smaller government
5. Go hyper-local
"Infrastructure projects should not be using steel from mills in China. We should not buy California wine ahead of B.C. or Ontario wine. We need to stop hopping across the border for cheaper flights. Every time we try to buy something cheaper, we set ourselves up for lost jobs." — Q: Are We Not Men?
6. Focus on R&D
7. Build pipelines
8. Incentives for construction of low-energy buildings
"This creates skilled jobs everywhere in Canada, uses mostly domestically produced equipment, ultimately lowers people's fuel bills and, if we do have a return to higher oil prices, allows more of the commodity to be exported." — steve lapp
9. Legalize marijuana
10. Focus on population growth
"We can't imagine competing with countries with vastly larger population pools. I would like to see large immigration [numbers] coupled with incentives for having children." — Drock