2025 B7 Summit Opening Gala: Welcome Remarks

Welcome remarks from Candace Laing, President and CEO, Canadian Chamber of Commerce

Delivered on Wednesday, May 14, at the 2025 B7 Summit Opening Gala

Good evening, everyone. First off, thank you to Elisabeth for leading us in our national anthem. Thank you, Thomas, for the land acknowledgement.

It’s an honour to represent the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and to be your host for this important event over the next few days. We have many honoured guests and many of you have travelled quite a distance to be with us. Thank you for making the journey.

And thank you for being on this journey together — the journey where we are navigating incredible economic turbulence. 

We are all focused on the U.S. administration’s trade policies and the reordering of our global trade system. However, to effectively meet this moment, we need to have the awareness and discipline to recognize that we were already on this path — perhaps it has now accelerated, but we were already living the change of an era.

The end of the post WWII era as we knew and understood it is here. This means we need to address growing geopolitical divisions, disruptive forces and deep grievances that are destabilizing supply chains and global trade and threatening global prosperity and security.

We have an important choice to make about our mindset in this moment. Do we lament and stew in anxiety about the current level of disruption and uncertainty? Or do we see the possibility of transformation? As we know, business is deathly allergic to uncertainty, but as we also know, business thrives on transformation.

Nothing ahead of us will be easy, but the mindset we carry into our “solutioning” matters a great deal. As the saying goes: “It’s an ill wind that blows no one any good.” It can be hard to imagine the upsides of disruption while we are in the midst of it, but we tend to come through it better and stronger.

There is also some good wind at our backs. As we face the challenge of transformation, we already have a system for solving the unprecedented wave of economic uncertainty. Established in the 1970s to counter economic upheaval, oil shocks and the collapse of an international monetary system, the G7 has been a pillar of global governance for 50 years. Membership may have changed over the decades, but the G7’s goal hasn’t: Bringing together the world’s most advanced economies to act as a catalyst for global cooperation and progress.

The convening of the world’s most advanced economies also includes the gathering of the Business Group of 7. Each year, B7 members support the G7 agenda with recommendations shaped by the business community on a key set of priorities.

This year’s B7 theme, “Bolstering Economic Security and Resilience,” is our response to the moment. Shared economic problems require shared solutions.

This year, given the geoeconomic confrontations and geostrategic considerations that closely link economic and national security agendas, the B7 stands ready, now more than ever, to support the G7’s efforts to secure the prosperity of people, communities and businesses in our great nations and beyond. And the Business Group of 7 has been steadfast regarding the importance of multilateral collaboration.

On the topic of collaboration, for months we have been working together with our B7 counterparts from the other G7 countries as well as our corporate sponsors. Over 40 organizations, representing a variety of sectors, signed on to support the work of the Canadian Chamber’s B7 presidency. We are deeply grateful for that support. Thank you especially to our knowledge partner, the Boston Consulting Group, and our premier sponsors, AWS, Microsoft and Toronto Pearson.

This group of partners and sponsors has been incredibly dedicated — spending countless hours in deep dialogue. Despite a shifting landscape around them, this group has been able to align on the framing and solutioning regarding key forces reshaping our global economy — these include trade, artificial intelligence and digital transformation, and the future of secure, sustainable and affordable energy.

The consensus on every word culminating in what we call the B7 Communiqué needs to be appreciated — it certainly is by me. The Communiqué serves as a key support to the upcoming G7 discussions. 

Building on recent B7 momentum, including Italy’s presidency last year, our Communiqué provides a strategic blueprint for G7 leaders to address today’s most pressing economic challenges. In addition to trade, AI and energy, we also explore the key enablers that strengthen systemic security and resiliency, including global health security, infrastructure resilience and cyber security preparedness. And underpinning it all, given its cross-cutting significance, is the importance of critical minerals and materials and their essential role in safeguarding economic and national security.

I am filled with optimism as I look out at this room and think about the conversations we’ll have over the next two days. Your attendance and your engagement at this particular moment in time will help ensure that economic security and resilience are built on the success of a thriving business community.

One thing I’d like you to take with you over the next two days is a level of comfort with discomfort. As the B7 group pushed through deep discussions leading up to this week’s summit, I can attest to the fact that the quality of our Communiqué is linked to the courageous conversations that ensued. We made it safe to disagree, to raise concerns and to think differently.  

We all need to lead like we are living the change of an era, because that is what we are in, and as I like to say these days, anything in defence of the status quo is not a strategy.

We’re honoured for you to be here, to contribute to and be inspired by really good content and discussions. We are excited to present our Communiqué and recommendations to the Government of Canada in preparation for the upcoming G7 Summit. Thank you once again for being here, thank you for leading the change of an era and for helping ensure that every citizen in our great nations may have a better life.