Canada’s “chopped up” domestic economy is stifling our ability to compete globally, suggests a report from the Conference Board of Canada.

Fixing it by creating a single Canadian market is one of five strategies put forward in “Mission Possible: Stellar Canadian Performance in the Global Economy.”

Released today by industry think tank, this final report of a three-year, research program — The Canada Project — is perhaps the most comprehensive attempt to reimagine the Canadian economy in the past two decades.

“Our balkanized domestic economy is poorly suited to compete globally. In the same way that the European Union has been developing one market for more than two dozen countries, Canada needs to create a single Canadian market,” said Glen Hodgson, senior vp and chief economist. “We see glimmers of hope in actions such as the British Columbia-Alberta trade and investment agreement and other regulatory reforms, but we need to move further and faster to tear down barriers.”

The Conference Board says Canada’s cumbersome system of regulations and barriers to competition interferes with the movement of goods and services, makes it harder for people to move to obtain work and reduces the flow of investment within the country. To create a single Canadian market, the report challenges governments to tackle the vast web of regulatory and other non-tariff barriers, reform the taxation system and open more industries to competitive pressures.

The Conference board says a single Canadian market would drive improvements to Canada’s overall productivity and competitiveness. Only one-fifth of the Canadian business economy is as productive as its U.S. counterpart. Reducing barriers to competition, especially in the tradeable goods sector, would help to address the Canada-U.S. productivity gap.

“Canada’s economic performance is slipping compared to other countries because their productivity is increasing at a faster rate,” said Hodgson. “Productivity is ‘smart growth’, so let’s make productivity gains a national imperative.”

Economic growth, however, cannot come at the expense of the environment. Canada must integrate economic growth and environmental sustainability into a single concept of sustainable prosperity and develop better measures of this relationship.

In addition to embracing productivity and competitiveness and creating a single Canadian market, the report recommends that Canada also rethink the workforce, revitalize international investment and trade, and refocus foreign policy priorities as its five strategies for sustainable prosperity.