Our To-Do List

Powering Growth Amid Geopolitical Storms

(An Agnico Eagle company photo of their Detour Lake gold mine, the largest gold-producing mine in Canada, located in Ontario about halfway between Cochrane and James Bay — about 12 km from the Quebec border.)

With fewer than four weeks to go until election day, Carney’s Liberals are ahead in the polls but Poilievre’s Conservatives, if they make the right moves, could still win.

The new government needs to jolt our country out of a decade of under-performance, which left us collectively weaker, and set the stage for a new era of growth, which the sting of income stagnation since 2014 has made urgent.

Canada should position itself to grow in the face of three interlocking perils: Trump’s tariff and broader policy uncertainty (complicated by his designs on Canadian and Danish/Greenlandic sovereignty); influence operations by Russia, China, Iran and others to degrade our democracy and weaken our alliances; and the defence of Ukraine and Europe against hard, continuing Russian aggression.

This will not be ‘growth for growth’s sake.’ We need growth that enhances our national security and, together with allies, builds a larger architecture of collective self-defence from Russia’s borders to the Taiwan Straits.

Bold policy moves are needed. Here’s a to-do list of ten major goals Canada’s next ministry should set for the country, and tackle at speed:

Shrink the structural deficit. For over two decades, our structural fiscal balance fluctuated between one percent of GDP of surplus and one percent of deficit. In recent years, it hit a 2.2 percent deficit. Our new government should bring it quickly back to one percent, then move to surplus over the next two to three years. To achieve this, Mark Carney’s proposed operating and capital budgets aren’t enough: overall structural deficits needs to be brought back under control.

Restore the competitive edge of Canada’s financial sector. Over the past decade, many Canadian corporate headquarters, public listings, private capital and debt financings have drained away to the US, reversing an advantage we earned after the global financial crisis. Today we need rapid action to incentivize re-investment of capital gains in Canadian companies, as Pierre Poilievre has recently proposed. We need to make Canada’s capital markets the world’s best for start-ups and growth ventures – from mining, nuclear and oil and gas to aerospace, biotech and quantum computing. We need to ensure our banks, insurers and other financial institutions remain best-in-class, while enhancing oversight and supervision, seizing proceeds of crime and combatting money laundering.

Enact a single market across Canada. This needs to go well beyond removal of quaint interprovincial barriers. We need a single market that delivers the European Union’s four freedoms, which permit free movement of goods, services, capital and people, while harmonizing Canadian standards for the environment, construction, education, digital services and other sectors. We need to do so in ways that improve the agility, cost structure, quality and scale of Canadian companies and governments.

Revamp the tax system to drive large-scale investment. We need to ensure corporate taxes are competitive while removing punitive surcharges such as the carbon tax. We must incentivize Canadian business to invest in new machinery, technology and robotics. Together with large Canadian institutional investors, including pension funds, we should identify sectors where large-scale investment is needed – from pipelines and nuclear facilities to ports and defence industries – then enact tax and regulatory frameworks needed to draw multi-decade commitments.

Build infrastructure to serve new demands. We need east-west infrastructure – pipelines, rail, roads and fibre – to bring Canadian energy, minerals, food, services and other products to world markets. We need north-south routes to safeguard circumpolar security. Our governments should collaborate on the best digital infrastructure to give Canadians fast, seamless online service nationwide.

Unleash the potential of Canadian oil, gas and mining. Canada’s top energy CEOs asked for five major changes, including repeal of bill C-69, the carbon tax, tanker bans on the Pacific coast and the current federal cap on oil production, which Poilievre has today pledged to enact, as any federal government seeking stronger growth must do. But we should go further. Environmental reviews need to take less time. Consultations and regulation need to be simplified. Investors, First Nations and all governments need to accelerate project cycles, in partnerships that benefit all.

Power up Canadian manufacturing and agri-food. Even with US tariffs, Canada should make cars, trucks, buses, military vehicles, aircraft, drones and other equipment for the entire world. The end of the Reciprocity Treaty in 1865 gave impetus to Confederation and Macdonald’s National Policy. Government procurement, the single market and reinforced infrastructure should bring Canadian food, beverages, hospitality, tourism and services to every region while highlighting Canadian manufacturers and their products.