Business Leaders Elect A.L. Flood as BCNI Chairman, Express Confidence in Canada’s Job Prospects

April 10, 1997

The Business Council on National Issues (BCNI) has elected A. L. Flood, one of Canada’s senior bankers, as its new Chairman. He succeeds Guy Saint-Pierre, the Chairman of SNC-LAVALIN Group Inc., who now assumes the post of Honorary Chairman.

The BCNI is Canada’s leading business organization and the voice of the country’s chief executives on public policy issues in Canada and internationally. Its membership is composed of the chief executive officers of 150 leading Canadian corporations. These companies represent every major sector of the economy and are responsible for a significant majority of Canada’s private sector investment, exports, training and research and development.

Mr. Flood, who is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CIBC, was elected at the conclusion of a special meeting of the BCNI on competitiveness and Canada-United States relations held in Washington, D.C. About 80 of the BCNI’s member chief executives also attended a breakfast session with Prime Minister Jean ChrǸtien, United States Vice President Al Gore and senior American business leaders.

Given the vital importance of the United States market to Canada’s private sector, BCNI members welcomed the Prime Minister’s first official visit to Washington and the reaffirmation of strong Canada-United States political and economic relations.

“The increasingly free flow of trade and investment between Canada and the United States has encouraged Canadian companies to become more competitive, has driven our exports to record levels and continues to be a vital force in building Canadian growth and jobs,” Mr. Flood said.

Council President and Chief Executive, Thomas d’Aquino, praised the benefits of free trade between the two countries, a cause that has been championed by the BCNI since the early 1980s. “Free trade was a hard won struggle but the evidence now overwhelmingly has established that it has been a powerful stimulant for exports, an important source of job creation, an incentive for investment and a contributor to more ordered relations between the world’s largest two-way trading partners.”

With the additional help of low inflation and low interest rates, business confidence is at record levels and consumer confidence is on the rise. This combination of factors is fuelling stronger domestic economic growth which, together with continued export success, should lead to impressive job gains in 1997.

The BCNI’s member chief executives tied their optimistic outlook on jobs to a continuation of sensible fiscal and monetary policies which to date have offered Canadians the enormously important advantage of interest rate relief. They called on federal Finance Minister Paul Martin to accelerate the drive to balance the federal budget, to resist calls for fresh spending in the wake of better than expected deficit-reduction progress and to lay out for Canadians a credible debt reduction strategy.

Once balanced budgets are achieved, however, governments should also consider ways to reduce the burden of taxes that discourage job creation and help to persuade highly-skilled Canadians to leave the country in search of higher after-tax incomes. Various options and strategies for eventual tax cuts will be studied by the Council in the coming months.

Members also stressed the need to ensure that Canada’s global success remains based on a strong foundation. They urged Canada’s First Ministers to work together more urgently to pursue beneficial reforms to the structure of the federation and also to take more effective steps to recognize the unique characteristics of Quebec within Canada.

In succeeding Mr. Saint-Pierre as chairman of the BCNI, Mr. Flood joins a long list of distinguished business leaders from a variety of industry sectors. Other former BCNI chairmen include: J. Edward Newall of NOVA Corporation (1989-995), David M. Culver of Alcan Aluminium Limited (1986-1989), Rowland C. Frazee of Royal Bank of Canada (1983-1986), Jack C. Barrow of Sears Canada Inc. (1979-1983) and founding chairmen Alfred Powis of Noranda Inc. and William O. Twaits of Imperial Oil Limited (1976-1979).