Confronting Global Economic Uncertainty:
A Canadian Strategy
Dear Prime Minister, When the Board of Directors of the Business Council on National Issues (BCNI) last wrote to you in March of this year, it was to convey our congratulations to you and the Minister of Finance on the vision, courage and determination shown by your government in achieving budget balance. At the same time, we urged a prudent approach to fiscal management and the adoption of a dynamic strategy for moving forward with further economic reforms. We suggested that celebration, however well deserved, was no excuse for relaxation in our continuing quest to build a better future for Canadians. Events since, both within and beyond Canada’s borders, have amply justified our recommendations for prudence and for moving boldly forward with an agenda for economic reform. We are pleased once again to share our thoughts with you as you, the Minister of Finance and your colleagues in cabinet and […]
Toward Sustainable Tax Cuts
Chairman, Honourable Members, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a pleasure to appear before this Committee once again, especially at such a promising time. Far too often in the past, the BCNI has been forced to sound the alarm. We have warned of the consequences of deficits, of inflation and of trying to isolate Canadians from a vibrant global economy. The transitions made by governments and the private sector have not been without pain, but it is clear that Canadians are reaping the rewards for their hard work. Almost every indicator of economic well being is now emphatically positive. The economy continues to grow at a very healthy pace. Canada led the G-7 last year and seems poised to do so again in 1998. Consumer prices remain remarkably stable and interest rates — a source of major expense for consumers and governments alike — have dropped to historic lows. More than half a million new […]
Northern Renaissance: Perspectives on Canada’s
Economic Performance and Global Competitiveness
Northern Renaissance: Perspectives on Canada’s Economic Performance and Global Competitiveness
Status Quo is Moving Target
This month, the Ontario legislature passed a motion endorsing the principles of the Calgary Declaration. All of the provincial and territorial legislatures except that of Nova Scotia have now done so with overwhelming support. In Quebec, the separatist government that at first disparaged the Calgary Declaration as not worth discussing has now decided to hold hearings. From this supposedly inconsequential statement has been woven what is now portrayed as “English Canada’s final offer”. It is, of course, neither inconsequential nor a final offer. The Calgary Declaration was not conceived as either an offer or a deal in the tradition of Meech Lake or Charlottetown. It is an important expression of principles — principles that the vast majority of Canadians from coast to coast appear to support. Calgary is certainly not the final word, the ultimate expression of a new status quo. Indeed, its enduring principles embrace our history of change. And the […]
Canada and the FTAA
The next stage in the expansion of freer trade is getting underway this month in Santiago, with the formal launch of negotiations towards a 34 nation Free Trade Area of The Americas (FTAA). Canada has a real stake in these negotiations. In parallel with widespread political liberalization, Latin America has witnessed a sea change in the direction of economic and trade policy over the past two decades from economies based on a closed, import substitution model to a model much more open and market-oriented. This shift is best illustrated by the example of tariffs, which have fallen from an average of forty percent in 1980 to eleven percent today. Over the past decade, Canadian exports to key Latin American countries have benefitted greatly from this more open and market-oriented approach to trade policy. Stagnant or growing only slowly through much of the 1980s, Canadian export growth to selected larger Latin […]
Canada’s Business Leaders Urge
Two-stage Assault on Debt and Taxes
The Business Council on National Issues (BCNI), representing the chief executives of 150 major Canadian corporations, says that after a quarter century of deficits, the federal government should speed up efforts to pay down debt over the next two years and then launch a program of accelerating tax cuts. “The next few years should generate substantial budget surpluses, and we must use the first surpluses to make sure that future tax cuts can be sustained through good times and bad,” said BCNI President and Chief Executive Thomas d’Aquino. “Public debt remains a huge mortgage on our future, and as with any mortgage, higher payments in the early years have the greatest impact.” In a memorandum to Prime Minister Jean ChrǸtien, the BCNI’s Policy Committee called on the government to adopt a short-term target of reducing its debt to 60 percent of GDP in the next two years and a medium-term […]
Building on Strength Towards a More Competitive and Socially Progressive Canada
Dear Prime Minister, For the first time in the history of the Business Council on National Issues (BCNI), our Board of Directors has been able to hold a meeting and discuss fiscal policy without the overhanging shadow of a federal deficit. We have written to you and your predecessors many times, always arguing that a balanced budget could be achieved in relatively few years. But the elimination of the deficit in this fiscal year is a testament to the vision, courage and determination of you and your government. As we noted in our immediate response to the recent budget tabled by Finance Minister Paul Martin — bravo! Like your government, the BCNI has now turned its attention to the post-deficit world, and we would like to share with you, Mr. Martin and your cabinet colleagues our thoughts on the challenges and opportunities that lie before us. RESTORING HOPE AND CONFIDENCE As this […]
Overtaxation a Threat to Future Prosperity
The deficit battle has been won. Two legacies of our past over-spending are extremely high levels of debt and a very heavily taxed Canadian public. We do need to start paying down that debt, but our future growth prospects will depend fundamentally on how we rise to the challenge of overtaxation. The forces of accelerating technological advancement and globalization have combined to change the structure of economies at every level of development. Now, and in future, economic growth will depend upon how we grow our knowledge base and how we deal with our key competitive resource — our human capital. To be sure, capital for investment is extremely mobile. But people have also become more mobile over the past two decades. As Canada integrates into the global economy, and as the mobility of Canadians increases, our comparatively high level of taxation on personal income will be a greater hinderance upon growth than […]
Bravo Mr. Martin! Business Leaders Hail
Balanced Budget Milestone, Urge Rapid
Progress on Reducing Debt and Taxes
In 1993, the Business Council on National Issues (BCNI) recommended that the federal government balance its budget by the 1998/99 fiscal year at the very latest. “At the time, this goal was termed audacious and unrealistic. Today, it is reality,” said BCNI President and Chief Executive Thomas d’Aquino. “Canadians deserve the credit for supporting in great numbers the return to fiscal responsibility.” The BCNI also congratulated Finance Minister Paul Martin for his leadership in finally eliminating the federal deficit, but warned that the government must not be complacent. “Two decades of deficits have built up a mortgage of more than $580 billion that must be cut back significantly before Canadians can truly enjoy a new era of lower tax rates and a secure social safety net. Reducing that legacy of past deficits is also a moral debt Canada’s parents owe to their children,” Mr. d’Aquino said. The BCNI, composed of […]
Kyoto and the Canadian Challenge
Kyoto and the Canadian Challenge
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