Canada’s socio-economic performance is mediocre compared to other developed countries, according to the Conference Board’s 11th annual snapshot of Canada’s outcomes in six domains — economy, innovation, environment, education and skills, health, and society.

“Running through this story is the common thread of a failure to innovate. Innovation is centrally important to Canada’s competitiveness and sustainable prosperity, but our performance is woefully inadequate,” said Anne Golden, president and CEO of the Conference Board, in a release. “This poor performance on innovation is also a key contributor to Canada’s failure to keep up with the top countries in the health and society domains and to our 14th place ranking in the environment domain.

“This record will not be good enough to meet the fundamental goal of a high and sustainable quality of life for all Canadians.”

Canada earns a “D” on innovation, ranking 14th among the 17 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries being benchmarked. Canada’s record is poor on developing and exploiting new products, processes and services, and on upgrading constantly the quality of what it already produces.

Canada’s ranking on the environment domain — another “D” — is dragged down by its performance on climate change and waste generation.

Canada’s best grade, an “A,” comes in the education and skills domain. With comparatively modest spending, Canada delivers high-quality education to people between ages 5 and 25. However, Canada does not produce enough graduates in the disciplines that underpin innovation; nor does it do well in basic skills and literacy for its adult population.

In the categories of economic performance, social indicators and health outcomes, Canada is a “B” performer. “These rankings confirm the argument that the Conference Board has made repeatedly in its annual benchmarking,” said Golden. “Canada is not living up to its brand in health and social outcomes and is trailing the top performers in the global economy.”

This is the first edition of How Canada Performs: A Report Card on Canada. It is publicly available at www.e-library.ca.