Canada avoided bust with strict banking code

CANADA managed to escape the worse effects of the international recession due to tight bank regulation over the last decade and heavy investment in the public sector since 2008, an international economics conference in Croke Park will hear today.

Executive director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Bruce Campbell, will be among those addressing the two-day Towards Recovery conference hosted by TASC and the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS).

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr Campbell said the Canadian banking system had resisted enormous pressure from the business community over the last 15 years to adopt a light regulation approach.

The head of one of Canada’s leading think tanks, he said that after the international of financial crisis in late 2008 the Canadian government adopted a public sector stimulus package and due to continued consumer spending experienced a “mini building boom”.

Mr Campbell said that he was surprised by the Irish Government’s adoption of austerity measures.

“I have yet to see a government that has cut its way to prosperity in these kinds of circumstances,” he said.

Mr Campbell also said he was surprised to hear so many young Irish people were planning to emigrate to Canada and warned that early next year the government there intended changing from an economic stimulus to austerity approach.