GPI Atlantic
  535 Indian Point Road
  Glen Haven, NS B3Z 2T5
  Canada
  Phone: (902) 489-2524
  info@gpiatlantic.org

Press Release

"Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things....The (GDP) counts air pollution and cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile." -- Robert Kennedy, 1968

The Nova Scotia Genuine Progress Index

The Economic Value of Unpaid Housework and Child Care in Nova Scotia is the second release of data for the Nova Scotia Genuine Progress Index. Statistics Canada has designated the new measure, which integrates social, economic and environmental factors into a comprehensive index of sustainable development, as a pilot project for the rest of the country. The first report, issued in August, found that Nova Scotians contribute 134 million hours a year in unpaid voluntary work, worth $1.9 billion to the provincial economy.

The next GPI report, due in November, will detail the costs of crime in Nova Scotia. While unpaid work is a hidden asset that is not currently measured but adds actual value to the economy, the costs of crime are currently counted as adding value to the GDP and contributing to economic growth. By contrast, the GPI subtracts the costs of crime as a liability.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was introduced in England during the second world war to measure total wartime production. Its architects never intended it to be used, as it is today, as an overall measure of economic well-being and progress. The GDP simply adds together the total quantity of goods and services produced and exchanged for money, regardless of whether they cause benefit or harm. Thus crime, divorce, toxic pollution, accidents and legal bills are all counted as "progress" because they generate economic activity.

"It's the same as a policeman standing on the street corner noting all activity equally - he sees a person jogging, someone stealing a car, children playing, someone else hitting a person on the head with a lead pipe, and people crossing the street and walking their dogs - as if there was no distinction", says Ronald Colman, director of GPI Atlantic, a non-profit research group. "The GDP just adds it all together as economic growth: schools or prisons, clinics or casinos, tree planting or pollution - it makes no difference to the GDP".

But while many liabilities are counted in the GDP, many assets are ignored. Aside from the value of unpaid work, the GDP also does not value our natural resources. The sale of fish and timber adds to the GDP - the more the better for our economy. But the depletion of our fisheries and forests, the natural capital on which that wealth is based, counts nowhere.

"This is simply bad accounting", says Colman. "It's the same as a factory owner selling off his machinery and counting it as profit. If you or I kept our accounts that way, I suspect Revenue Canada might not be happy."

By contrast, the Genuine Progress Index tries to give a more complete picture of our actual well-being, prosperity and progress as a society. It will include natural resource accounts that assess the state of our soils, forests, fisheries and wildlife. It adds other assets like unpaid work, educational attainment, and the value of free time, and subtracts liabilities like the costs of crime, pollution and underemployment.

The GPI also includes economic indicators like livelihood security and income distribution. "The GDP will go up even if most people are getting poorer", says Colman. By contrast, the GPI goes up with greater equality and down if our society is becoming more unequal.

Altogether the GPI has 20 social, economic and environmental components. Construction of the index is scheduled for completion at the end of 1999, provided GPI Atlantic can raise the funds necessary to hire additional researchers. In May next year Halifax will host an inter-provincial conference that will give a progress report on the Nova Scotia GPI, allow other provinces to examine its applicability, and discuss common methodologies that will enable comparability between provinces.

"It's a chance for Nova Scotia to take the lead in creating the accounting basis for the new economy of the next millenium," says Colman. "What we count and measure is what we value as a society. The real question is what kind of world are we leaving our children? Will we nurture and support those fundamental human values that give life meaning and make life worthwhile? If we count them, we're more likely to do it."

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