The Certified Management Accountants of Canada is calling on the federal government to eliminate tax barriers and red tape which CMA Canada says are killing Canada”s productivity growth and leaving Canadians thousands of dollars poorer than their U.S. counterparts.

CMA Canada made a number of recommendations on improving tax measures and public financial management and accountability in an appearance before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance.

“Canada has a serious soft spot — our recent record on productivity growth, or more appropriately, lack of growth,” CMA Canada President and CEO Steve Vieweg told the committee.

After matching U.S. productivity growth from 1999 to 2000, Canada has fallen off dramatically, to the point where the standard of living of Canadians had fallen almost 20% behind Americans in 2004, CMA Canada said in a release. This represents an annual income gap of $9,242 per Canadian.

One of the measures CMA Canada recommend to boost productivity and prosperity for Canadians is raising the lifetime capital gains exemption to $1 million from $500,000.

CMA Canada federal budget analyst Michael Tinkler also told the committee that strengthening public sector financial management and accountability is critical to increasing the resources to invest in health, education, infrastructure and other areas which improve the lives of Canadians.

“The Government of Canada is the single largest organization in the country, with a considerable impact on the well-being of Canadians,” said Mr. Tinkler. “Strengthening how it manages its own employees, programs and expenditures can only help to ensure more effective and efficient use of resources aimed at improving our quality of life.”