Past Initiatives

COVID-19: Canadian Businesses and Business Leaders Step Up

Canadian businesses and business leaders stepped up in the fight against COVID-19.

For some, that meant launching new philanthropic initiatives to help those in need or shifting production lines to manufacture much-needed personal protective equipment and medical devices. For others, it meant ensuring Canadians continued to have access to groceries, medicine, communications, financial resources, and essential services, and playing a key role in supporting vaccination efforts of nearby communities and providing rapid screening in workplaces.

Task Force on Canada’s Economic Future

The Business Council of Canada launched the Task Force on Canada’s Economic Future, which engaged Canadians from across the country to advance policies that enhance growth and ensure a better future for all.

The Canada-United States Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs & Business Leaders

In February 2017 the Council supported the creation of an independent and autonomous group that brought together female business leaders from the U.S. and Canada to develop advice aimed at boosting women’s economic engagement. Several of the group’s recommendations have been implemented, including the Government of Canada’s first-ever Women Entrepreneurship Strategy and the business-led “See It Be It STEM It” initiative.

Taking Action for Canada: Skills and Jobs for the 21st Century

Launched in 2013, this multi-year initiative was the first of its kind to bring together leaders from business, government and education with the shared goal of ensuring Canadian graduates have the right mix of skills and work experience to succeed in a changing labour market. It led to the creation of the Business + Higher Education Roundtable, which is now the primary vehicle for organizing the delivery of work-integrated learning across Canada so that everyone has an opportunity to reach their potential.

Canada in the Pacific Century

Launched in 2011, this multi-year initiative brought together business leaders, policymakers and academics who shared the goal of ensuring Canada’s continued prosperity as economic power was shifting toward Asia. A key recommendation called on Canada to join a proposed Asia Pacific trade deal, and eight years later Canadian exporters celebrated the implementation of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on December 30, 2018.