Canadian Chamber of Commerce: Pandemic debt, climate change costs demand a serious, bold plan to grow our economy. Why doesn’t Canada have one?

(OTTAWA) – August 11, 2021 – Canadians everywhere want to look past the pandemic and know what comes next. While they can expect many spending announcements, lofty promises of jobs and boutique tax cuts during this coming election, what they’re looking for has been missing so far.

Conspicuously absent in the pre-election period is a serious, sustainable, and bold plan to grow our economy, despite the fact the economy is concern number one for Canadians according to recent polls.

The Canadian Chamber has asked our political leaders why our economic growth has flatlined for the past 25 years and how they plan to fix it. In the absence of any comprehensive strategy from the politicians, the Canadian Chamber today outlined its ideas on what it takes to grow an economy and challenged all parties to adopt the recommendations.

“The need for strong, sustained economic growth is now beyond debate. Canada’s credit cards have been maxed with pandemic debt, and the cost of dealing climate change and confronting other urgent issues will only increase for everyday Canadians and businesses. How do we pay for all of this? A serious, bold strategy to grow our economy is Canada’s only way forward, and Canadians have right to know where the parties stand before they go to the polls,” said Perrin Beatty, President and CEO, Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

The Canadian Chamber’s formula for growth has three distinct phases:

1. Finishing the fight against COVID
2. Getting the fundamentals right
3. Creating 21^st century opportunities

“We cannot borrow our way to prosperity, nor should we confuse government spending with actual economic growth,” added Beatty. “Our political leaders cannot, and should not want to go back to where we were before COVID when Canada lagged our competitors in investment and growth. Compared with other leading economies, Canada’s pre-COVID economic performance was weak and getting weaker. Today, we’ve laid out a formula for what it takes to grow, and we challenge all parties to adopt these recommendations.”

The Canadian Chamber’s plan addresses the reality that Canada’s international competitors are working to improve their performance and create good jobs for their citizens. To succeed in the face of fierce competition, Canada must generate sustained business investment, jobs and growth here — not just in the short term, but for many years. The Canadian Chamber believes all of our other goals like climate, improving childcare and achieving reconciliation depend on our ability to sustain a growing economy.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is Canada’s largest business association representing 450 local chambers of commerce and boards of trade, accounting for more than 200,000 member businesses from every Main Street in the country. Today’s recommendations reflect the economic realities of Canada’s job creators and growth generators.

Click on What It Takes To Grow to learn more about the Canadian Chamber’s recommendations.

About the Canadian Chamber of Commerce – Because Business Matters

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce helps build the businesses that support our families, our communities and our country. We do this by influencing government policy, by providing essential business services and by connecting businesses to information they can use, to opportunities for growth and to a network of local chambers, businesses, decision-makers and peers from across the country, in every sector of the economy and at all levels of government, as well as internationally. We are unapologetic in our support for business and the vital role it plays in building and sustaining our great nation.

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For more information, please contact:
Phil Taylor
ptaylor@chamber.ca