Canada’s Economic Growth Strategy: How to Create a Stronger Future for All

Though it’s been a century since our founding, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce is still striving after one clear mission statement: To build a Canada of thriving business opportunity, a strong economy, and a better life for all. There’s a reason the elements of our mission statement are ordered in this way. Because you cannot have a better life for all and an improved standard of living for Canadians without first having a strong economy. And you cannot have a strong economy unless you first have a business community that is on solid ground, investing and hiring.

However, the strength of that business community cannot be concentrated in one region and sector; it must be shared. As our country’s largest business network, the only one representing small, medium and large businesses alike, we are passionate about this. We represent the on-the-ground leaders, the 400 chambers of commerce and boards of trade across Canada, which is why we know taking care of Canadians and taking care of the business community go hand in hand.

A Strong Private Sector Is Key to Canada’s Economic Growth Strategy

Canadians see the need for a strong and healthy economy. When the economy is good, the impacts on everyday life are evident: unemployment is lower, prices are stable, and wages are higher. What Canadians may not recognize is that the only real economic engine is a thriving private sector. Though the federal government is an important player, and its spending can help jumpstart business investment, every dollar of that spending started as a business or personal tax dollar.

The social programs and services we value depend on the public revenues generated by the private sector. Consider that for every $1 of GDP, the federal government collects about $0.16 in revenue, which means that when businesses make more money and contribute more to our GDP, government funding automatically grows too.

What It Means to Have a Strong Economy

Economic health and strength are built by businesses, but businesses’ capacity to build is limited without an environment that attracts investment, encourages innovation and gets big projects up and running. And that is the role of government: To create the conditions that both attract and allow companies, domestic and foreign, to invest, build and grow in Canada.

It would be easy to blame Canada’s current economic situation on US tariffs or other external pressures, but that wouldn’t be the truth. Even before the shakeup in geopolitics and international trade dynamics, Canada’s economic position was weak. Almost every economic indicator has been flashing warning signs for years. 

• Productivity: In 2024, our declining productivity was called a national emergency by the Bank of Canada. Labour productivity has only increased in two out of the past eight quarters (from Q3 2023 to Q2 2025). Today, as our Business Data Lab shows, Canadian workers produce roughly 70% of the output of their US counterparts, down from about 80% in 2000. 
  
  
• Supply chains: Our supply chains are under constant strain from climate shocks, labour disruptions, global conflicts and more. In 2023, the number of working days lost to labour disputes rose to its highest level since 1986. The trend continued in 2024 and 2025. 
  
  
• Red tape: Canada’s abundant regulatory red tape, which has steadily grown since 2006, continues to hold big projects up. While we welcome the federal government’s Major Projects Office and red tape review, the government still must address the regulatory contradictions and red tape that keep capital from investing in Canada. Every project must face a predictable and fair process, not just a designated few.
  
  
• Housing: To restore affordability to pre-pandemic levels, we need to double the pace of housing starts and reach 430,000 to 480,000 per year, which would completely buck the trend of consistent decline since September 2025.
  
  
• Skills gap: There’s a major mismatch between the skills that we need for the economy and the skills that are currently available in the labour market. According to our Q4 2025 Business Insights Quarterly, over a quarter of businesses reported recruiting skilled employees as a Top 10 expected short-term obstacle. To function at its peak, our economy needs to fill tens of thousands of critical positions in engineering, technical occupations (medical technologists, dental care occupations), higher-skill goods (mechanics, electrical trades), and other higher-skill services (nurses, teachers, social services and therapy professionals). The worker shortage in these “clusters”, as categorized by Signal49 Research (formerly the Conference Board of Canada), cost us around $2.6 billion in 2024.
  
  

Broken down like this, our economic situation is bleak. Yes, there is work to be done, but Canada has all the ingredients we need to be competitive: abundant natural resources from lumber to liquid natural gas, significant reserves of arable land perfect for agriculture, a highly-educated workforce, and a positive global reputation.

Because where government can’t, business can. Where government won’t, business will.

Addressing the Challenges Slowing Canada’s Economic Growth Strategy

To make sure business is leaning into its agency and that we’re headed in the right direction, the Canadian Chamber is hosting a new Future of Business Summit in April. It’s designed as a working forum, geared to tackle the needs of this moment and move us from diagnosis to practical solutions and coordinated action.

The Summit will convene leaders from business, government, labour, and civil society to focus squarely on Canada’s long-term competitiveness, productivity and economic resilience. This gathering will create space for connections and conversations that move the ball forward, addressing the monumental challenges facing us: 

• As geopolitical tensions reshape our alliances, what is Canada’s place in the world?
• Can we find common ground on internal trade before another year slips by?
• Can we turn defence spending into lasting industrial strength?
• How do we give businesses the certainty they need to build the transportation, energy and trade infrastructure economic growth desperately requires?
• Will Canadian businesses adopt artificial intelligence at the scale required to solve our productivity challenge?
• What is the connection between trust brokering and a resilient economy?  
• How do we empower Indigenous entrepreneurs and achieve true economic Reconciliation?
• What does Canada’s changing demography mean for economic growth, competitiveness, and long-term prosperity?
• How do we deliver an Arctic strategy that will unlock the economic potential of Canada’s North? 
• How do we close Canada’s productivity gap?
  
  

A Future of Shared Success

As the representative of Canada’s national business community, the Canadian Chamber has been a leading voice in the conversation around Canada’s economic future since the 1920s. Enabling businesses’ connection and empowerment and advocating on behalf of businesses at the highest levels of government is our most important work.

Businesses know their customers, employees and communities succeed when they succeed, and that collective success creates a cycle of business, nation and community building that self-reinforces, raising living standards for generations to come. That’s the future we’re calling you to help us shape at the Future of Business Summit.