One of Canada’s most influential business groups says its members are warming to Prime Minister Mark Carney ’s more interventionist economic agenda, and they largely support his plans to diversify exports and boost investment.
The Business Council of Canada , which represents the top executives of many of the country’s largest companies, found broad backing for the prime minister’s plans, even as executives expressed doubt about the government’s ability to carry them out.
More than 80 per cent of respondents agreed with the overall direction of the federal government’s economic agenda, but most said they’re “concerned about execution.” In fact, there was almost universal agreement among executives that the government’s institutional capacity to deliver is “uneven” or “weak.”
Many executives see regulatory complexity or “red tape” as the single biggest obstacle to Canada’s economic success, with 59 per cent choosing that from a list of options. Tax competitiveness came in second at 19 per cent.
The findings suggest Canadian business leaders are now more open to the government stepping in to boost strategic sectors.
About half of BCC members said they were more supportive of government intervention than they were in 2019. Still, they acknowledged the limits of industrial policy, with 41 per cent saying it should be “used selectively, with strict criteria and discipline.” Another 35 per cent said it should be kept minimal and focus on competitiveness.
“It would be a stretch to characterize the mood in C-suites as nationalist or an openness to retreat away from market principles,” Theo Argitis, senior vice-president at the council, wrote in a post about the survey results. “Markets should be as open as possible and government intervention limited. But we are not in a first-best world.”
The survey captures a changing relationship between business and the federal government after many years of strained relations under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In September, Carney announced a plan to expand a tax break for capital investments through a policy dubbed the “productivity mega-deduction.” He’s also introduced legislation to streamline project approvals and broaden federal powers to intervene in some labor disputes.
“Business leaders are largely supportive of the overall shift toward a focus on sovereignty and resilience, as well as an increasing appetite for government involvement, as long as it remains disciplined and focused on driving more investment into our economy,” Argitis said.
More than 100 of Business Council members, along with about two dozen other leaders from the business and policy community, responded to the survey. The organization also held roundtables, which dozens of stakeholders attended, in five Canadian cities.
Members of the council include the CEOs of large banks, telecommunications firms and energy and transportation companies. Tracy Robinson, the CEO of Canadian National Railway Co., is the board chair.