Parliamentarians Must Move Swiftly to Boost Canadian Productivity, Chief Executives Say
Canada’s leading CEOs and entrepreneurs are urging Members of Parliament from all parties to make a concerted effort to increase Canadian productivity and improve our country’s ability to compete globally for people, ideas and investment. In a major paper delivered to Members of Parliament today, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) offers 10 specific recommendations that could be implemented quickly and should be capable of winning cross-party support in the new minority Parliament. The CCCE also puts forward five more ambitious ideas that are intended as catalysts for a broad national discussion about how to drive Canada’s economic and social progress over the next decade. “It is time to think big about what Canadians can achieve and how to get there from here,” says the statement, titled From Bronze to Gold: A Blueprint for Canadian Leadership in a Transforming World. The statement is signed on behalf of the CCCE’s 150 member chief […]
From Bronze to Gold (HTML Version)
(To download the PDF version of this document, click here) February 21, 2006 In June 2005, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives launched a new initiative aimed at improving Canada’s competitiveness within a transforming global economy. We spoke out because, despite all the good economic news that Canadians have enjoyed in recent years, we believe that Canadians had become dangerously complacent about a wide range of emerging challenges to our country’s ability to sustain the wellbeing of its citizens. We also were discouraged by the extent to which Canada’s political process had become dominated by short-term partisan tactics at the expense of strategic decision-making. In the months since, we have engaged in research and consultation across a wide range of issues that matter to the long-term future of Canada. On January 23, 2006, after an unusually long and intense election campaign, Canadians chose a new Parliament and a new Government. […]
Letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Business Leaders Congratulate Stephen Harper, Pledge to Work With New Conservative Government
Chief executives and entrepreneurs from across Canada are congratulating Conservative Leader Stephen Harper on his victory in yesterday’s federal general election and have pledged to work with the new government in strengthening the country’s foundations for achievement in the decades to come: economic competitiveness, social progress and good governance. “Canadians have given Mr. Harper a mandate for change,” said Thomas d’Aquino, Chief Executive and President of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE). The CCCE is a non-partisan organization composed of the CEOs of 150 major enterprises and leading entrepreneurs, representing all regions and sectors of the Canadian economy. “Mr. Harper and his party will be forming a government at a time when Canada is facing serious and growing challenges to its ability to generate continuing growth and prosperity,” Mr. d’Aquino added. “During the campaign, Mr. Harper showed that he understands both the depth of these challenges and the need for bold action to accelerate […]
Alberta’s Energy Boom is of Great Benefit to Canada as a Whole – Comments by Thomas d’Aquino on CBC Radio’s The Current
Edited transcript of comments by Thomas d’Aquino, Chief Executive and President of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, on CBC Radio’s The Current, December 21, 2005: “When I grew up in British Columbia, it was one of the richest provinces in Canada. Then for about a 15- or 20-year period, it went downhill, and now it is coming back up again. Ontario still accounts for 42 or 43 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. But we should not assume that Ontario must and always will be dominant. There will be shifts, and we should not whine or cry about it. There will be some movement of businesses and people to Alberta and the other energy-producing provinces, as there has been already, but that should be seen as an opportunity rather than a threat. Keep in mind that while Ontario’s auto sector is now facing some cold and chilly winds, […]
Statement by World Business Leaders for Growth on the Results of the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong
Washington, D.C. – On Sunday, the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial meeting came to a close. The Ministers succeeded in avoiding the failures of Cancun, but were unable to reach agreement on the frameworks and modalities for the agriculture and industrial tariff negotiations that were among the principal objectives for Hong Kong. We are still in the game, but with a long run ahead of us. A significant amount of work that should have been completed in Hong Kong remains to be done in the year ahead. After the failure of Cancun, Hong Kong at least brought results, but with only one year to go until the 2006 deadline for the close of negotiations, WTO members must remember that three ministerial strikes may mean we are out. The gaps between the positions of key WTO member countries remain large. When negotiations continue in the months to come, WTO members must keep […]
World Business Leaders Urge Trade Ministers to Seize the Opportunity to Resurrect the Doha Round
World Business Leaders Urge Trade Ministers to Seize the Opportunity to Resurrect the Doha Round
Business Leaders Welcome Quick Action on Income Trusts
Comments by David Stewart-Patterson, Executive Vice President, Canadian Council of Chief Executives, in reaction to the federal government’s decision to improve the tax treatment of corporate dividends: “The intense national discussion of the income trust issue over the past two months has shown a strong consensus within the business community and among investors on three issues: the need for quick action to resolve uncertainty in financial markets; the principle that the tax system should be neutral in its impact on choices about how to structure a business; and the importance of reducing the imbalance in the tax system between trust and corporate structures by cutting the tax burden on corporate dividends. “The increase in the dividend tax credit is a significant personal tax cut, and for taxable Canadian investors, puts dividends paid by companies paying the general corporate income tax rate on an equal footing with income trust distributions. “This is […]
Level the Field for Investors and Enterprises
Level the Field for Investors and Enterprises
Improving the Competition Act and Canadian Competitiveness
It is my pleasure to be here this morning to discuss the latest proposed changes to the Competition Act. As members of the Committee likely are aware, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives has participated in an important way in virtually every stage of reform that this legislation has undergone. Mr. Chairman, the pace of change in the marketplace is accelerating. Competition law, along with other economic framework policies, must keep pace if Canada is to continue to be an attractive location for investment and offer a sound foundation from which businesses can compete internationally. Needless to say, dynamic firms operating from a Canadian base are the best way to ensure jobs and social benefits for Canadians and to provide Canadian consumers with useful and competitively priced products. As I stated before this Committee last December, we support two of the specific provisions in Bill C-19. The repeal of the […]
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