KEEPING UP WITH THE PURITANS:

Stay later at the office, Ontario has to catch up (TAVIA GRANT, 9/01/06, Globe and Mail)

Ontarians now work, on average, almost 3½ weeks less a year than their U.S. counterparts. That means more time to play, but also slower economic growth and lost revenue for the provincial government that could go toward social programs or lower taxes.

"In a perfect world, if we could get more productive, we could catch the Americans without having to work harder," said James Milway, executive director of the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity, which published the 42-page report. "But there are some factors that are driving our work effort down we might want to correct.

"We're not saying people should all cancel your vacations and get back to work," Mr. Milway said. "But there are certain parts of the population who aren't working as many hours as they want, and that's a problem."