Business-7 Summit: Ensuring Policies Are Creating Opportunities for You

Last week, we participated in the Business-7 (B7) Summit, hosted by our French counterparts from the Mouvement des entreprises de France, along with our Canadian delegation with members from TD Bank and Agropur Cooperative.

The B7 is one of our key international platforms to put issues on the agenda of G7 countries. While issues discussed at the G7 in a given year are not immediately implemented within our domestic legislation or policies, it plays a key agenda setting role for issues that will be discussed at institutions such as the OECD. Many of those issues at the OECD then find their way into our domestic sphere. This time lag does not equate with ineffectiveness. If anything, it underscores the importance of engaging early to the influence the agenda before its thrust upon us without our input.

Having access to the B7, alongside our Business at OECD platform to engage in OECD policy formulation, as well as our domestic policy work, enables us to advocate for Canadian business interests at every step along the way.

This year’s B7 focused on the overarching theme of inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Lofty to be sure, but this was unpacked through the separate themes of international trade, environment, cybersecurity and the future of work.

Looking across those four areas, the discussions focused on how we respond to disruptions in the current global political and economic environment. Many agreed that urgent concrete actions are needed to ensure that our economic policies are creating opportunities for the widest possible segments of our population. The B7 declaration contains the tangible recommendations we advocated for across all four areas, click here to read the full declaration.