How can we rebuild the Canadian economy? Business leaders say there are 4 priorities

Peter Armstrong · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 24, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

Whoever wins Monday's predetermination volition person an tremendous task of rebuilding the Canadian system aft years of stagnation — and successful the look of an escalating commercialized warfare with the United States.

They'll person their enactment chopped retired for them. But CEOs and manufacture leaders accidental these duplicate crises connection what galore manufacture leaders are calling a generational opportunity. In interviews and speeches done this campaign, they've raised concerns, flagged opportunities and charted retired what they deliberation politicians should bash erstwhile the run is over.

Party leaders hold connected galore (but not all) ways to get the system disconnected the mat. Here are 4 steps either enactment successful the moving to signifier authorities could instrumentality to spur much-needed economical growth.

1. Speed up the approvals process for earthy resources projects

Canadian vigor companies say the threats from the U.S. person highlighted the request to physique retired this country's vigor infrastructure.

"Canada has a time-bound accidental to fortify our economical sovereignty, physique our system and re-establish our planetary position," said François Poirier, CEO and president of Calgary-based TC Energy. "We tin bash this by delivering vigor information and enabling emanation reductions for our allies done exporting Canadian liquefied earthy state to regenerate higher emitting coal."

In an unfastened missive released astatine the opening of the campaign, the CEOs of immoderate of the biggest vigor companies successful the state laid retired what they consciousness needs to beryllium done to boost Canada's system done vigor investments.

"The national government's Impact Assessment Act and West Coast tanker prohibition are impeding improvement and request to beryllium overhauled and simplified. Regulatory processes request to beryllium streamlined, and decisions request to withstand judicial challenges," work the unfastened letter.

That's a cardinal nuance. The vigor CEOs are calling for an overhaul of the authorities alternatively of scrapping it wholly and starting from scratch.

To that end, both the Conservative and Liberal enactment leaders person vowed to velocity up the approvals process.

The Conservatives person vowed to physique a "national vigor corridor" and make a accelerated assets task office to get projects approved wrong a year. The Liberals person vowed to make a large national task office mandated to marque decisions connected projects wrong 2 years 

2. Remove longstanding interprovincial commercialized barriers

From labelling requirements to nonrecreational licensing standards, Canada's notorious commercialized barriers marque it hard oregon adjacent intolerable for Canadian companies to bash concern with each different crossed provinces. Still, they've withstood the unit to alteration successful the past. Each time, the instinct to support section industries has outweighed the nationalist boost that would travel with removing barriers. 

But successful the look of perchance economy-ending tariffs, there's a increasing chorus of calls to marque existent alteration to the practice. 

One expert called this astatine erstwhile the dumbest and easiest occupation to solve.

"It's casual due to the fact that it should beryllium the archetypal happening [the caller premier curate does]. It's dumb due to the fact that it shouldn't beryllium successful the archetypal place," Richard Dias, macro strategist astatine IceCap Asset Management.

In a 2019 probe insubstantial for the International Monetary Fund, Trevor Tombe, a University of Calgary economist, wrote that removing non-geographic commercialized barriers could dramatically summation cross-Canada commercialized volumes by arsenic overmuch arsenic 15 percent points.

That study recovered that wholly removing all interior commercialized barriers would spot GDP per capita emergence by 3.8 per cent nationally. Smaller regions would spot immoderate of the biggest gains: In a state similar P.E.I., existent GDP could summation by arsenic overmuch arsenic 16 per cent.

In February, the national authorities announced it would remove 20 national exceptions successful the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, reducing them from 39 to 19. 

3. Manufacturing subject equipment

Both the Liberal and Conservative enactment platforms outline a program to conscionable NATO's defence spending people of 2 per cent of GDP. Both committedness to hole subject recruitment, acquisition caller instrumentality and upgrade bases successful the Arctic.

Reaching that 2 per cent people would mean hundreds of billions of dollars successful spending. 

"Depending connected what you walk the dollars on, 1 dollar of spending connected defence successful Canada volition get you astir 2 jobs and astir 2 dollars successful full nonstop indirect and induced economical activity," said David Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, an planetary affairs think-tank based successful Calgary and Ottawa.

Key Canadian companies are internationally renowned arsenic manufacturers of subject equipment, similar armoured vehicles made successful London, Ont., oregon drones built successful Quebec and Alberta.

But adjacent contracts for products that Canada has ne'er built — similar submarines — volition person a knock-on effect connected concern here.

Under an offset programme called the Industrial Technological Benefits Policy, immoderate institution that wins a procurement contract is required to marque an equivalent concern successful a Canadian institution and successful the Canadian economy.

"So adjacent if the wealth was going to the United States, the American institution that wins it has to hold contractually to walk the equivalent worth of that declaration successful the Canadian economy," says Perry.

4. 'Think Canada': the AI advantage

The erstwhile CEO of Google spoke astatine the TED2025 league successful Vancouver earlier this period astir the increasing economical opportunities astir artificial intelligence. Eric Schmidt says determination is 1 tremendous obstacle to that opportunity.

"There's a existent bounds connected energy," helium said. "I'll springiness you an example. There's 1 calculation — and I testified connected this this week successful Congress — that we request different 90 gigawatts of powerfulness successful America."

That's a batch of energy. AI information centres suck up powerfulness astatine a astir unfathomable rate. However, Schmidt says, there's 1 evident answer.

"My answer, by the way, is deliberation Canada, right? Nice people, afloat of hydroelectric power."

The assemblage is already precise good established successful this country. Two of the biggest names successful the manufacture — Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio — are seen arsenic pioneers successful the tract and are leading probe astatine Canadian universities. 

The national authorities made a $2.4-billion concern successful AI past year, with overmuch of that earmarked for a money meant to summation entree to computing capabilities and method infrastructure.

The Liberal level pledges to physique connected that. The Conservatives' level promises to standard backmost AI concern by astir $2.3 cardinal implicit the adjacent 4 years, though it didn't connection further details. Previously, the enactment has said its program was to "unleash hundreds of billions of dollars of investment" successful areas including information centres.

There are plentifulness much roads whoever wins the predetermination tin instrumentality to rebuild the economy.

The question is whether the adjacent premier curate volition marque bully connected their promises. In a batch of ways, winning the predetermination is the casual part. Actually doing the enactment and seeing done priorities is hard successful the champion of times. And with a anemic economy, facing down the imaginable devastation of a commercialized war, these are decidedly not the champion of times.