Letter to the newly elected Prime Minister

Letter to The Right Honourable Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, outlining four strategic priorities essential to ensuring a better future for Canadians.

Dear Prime Minister, 

On behalf of the Business Council of Canada, please accept my sincere congratulations on your election victory. You are taking office at a time of significant challenge and change for our country, and all Canadians are depending on you and your government to meet the moment with bold, ambitious, decisive action.  

The members I represent–the leaders of Canada’s largest enterprises–feel a sense of urgency that I believe you share, and I write to you in a spirit of genuine partnership with a commitment to helping your government make the changes necessary to create a more resilient and prosperous country. 

In electing a minority government, Canadians have made it clear that they expect you to work with other parties as you introduce and implement initiatives to propel our country forward. We hope you will operate with a recognition of the need for collaboration.

In recent months we provided pragmatic recommendations for Canada’s economic renewal in two policy roadmaps:  Ambition and Action: An Urgent Plan for Canada and Engines of Growth.  

I would like to highlight four strategic priorities that we believe are essential to ensuring a better future for all Canadians.  

1. Stabilize the U.S. relationship. 

The United States is and will remain Canada’s most important economic partner. Stabilizing and strengthening this relationship must be a top priority, even as we seek to diversify our export trade to other countries.  

For more than six decades, agreements such as the Auto Pact, the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement and now the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), have provided the certainty and preferential market access necessary to make North America a global trade and investment superpower. Based on those agreements, robust supply chains have been built to connect communities across the continent. 

In recent weeks you have indicated that you intend to immediately begin comprehensive, possibly bilateral, negotiations with the United States for a new economic and security relationship. In our view, a bilateral arrangement could create unnecessary risk and undermine Canada’s mutually beneficial trilateral economic partnership with the United States and Mexico. 

We instead urge your government to prioritize proactive engagement with U.S. and Mexican counterparts to expedite the review and extension of the CUSMA. Business leaders in all three countries agree that the agreement must continue to serve as the central mechanism for governing trade and investment, resolving disputes and increasing continental competitiveness and productivity.  

Expediting the review and extension of the CUSMA is the best and, in our judgment, only way to restore the certainty, stability and predictability required to regain the investor confidence that underpins our continental economy. 

To help ensure the successful review and extension of the CUSMA, we recommend that Canada invite President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico to attend the G7 Leaders’ Summit this June and use the opportunity to hold a North American Leaders’ Summit on the margins of that gathering. 

2. Ignite the Engines of Growth. 

Economic growth is a means to higher wages, improved living standards and sustained revenue for cherished public services. But we cannot redistribute what we do not produce.  

Canada must reignite its Engines of Growth.  We must shift from a consumption-driven economy to one anchored in production, innovation and industrial strength.  

This shift begins with improved cooperation with provinces, territories, the private sector, Indigenous peoples and labour to expedite the identification and approval of projects important to Canada’s national and economic security. A faster and more predictable project approval process is key to creating investor confidence and unlocking private investment and economic momentum.  

Investment in trade-enabling infrastructure is equally urgent. We recommend immediate action to accelerate priority infrastructure projects, especially in transportation and energy corridors. Upgrading ports, expanding rail capacity and improving logistics systems across the country will enhance our global competitiveness and deepen our ties with allies and trading partners. 

Canada has the talent and resources to lead in designing, not just assembling, transformative technologies. Science and technology must be treated as foundational to our future.  

As we outlined in our recent report Security and Prosperity, we must also build a robust domestic defence industrial base by developing dual-use technologies and modernizing procurement to reflect both economic and security imperatives. 

3. Pursue diversification for resilience and security. 

In today’s volatile geopolitical environment, Canada must diversify its markets, energy exports and supply chains. Overdependence on a single trading partner, as recent disruptions have shown, leaves our economy exposed to unnecessary risk. 

We must broaden our global reach by expanding access to high-growth markets in Europe, the Indo-Pacific and beyond. A top priority should be building new export opportunities for Canadian energy and natural resources. Your government should advance an ambitious strategy to respond to global demands and serve the needs of allied countries for oil and gas, uranium and critical minerals. 

Diversification also means building resilient, secure supply chains, both domestically and through partnerships with trusted allies. Canada must strengthen its capacity to produce and secure critical goods, from minerals to advanced technologies. These efforts are essential not only for economic resilience but for national security. 

While diversifying Canada’s international customer base should be a top priority, so too should be removing domestic barriers to internal trade and labour mobility. 

4. Adopt a responsible fiscal framework. 

We share your commitment to a strong, growing economy, but achieving it depends on a responsible fiscal foundation. Given the economic crisis facing the country, we recommend deferring the implementation of platform commitments that are not central to Canada’s immediate economic response, or essential to restoring growth and stability.  

For this reason, while we support targeted investments to enhance productivity and growth, we believe it would be prudent to delay proposed tax cuts until the federal government’s fiscal framework can afford it. 

For several years, the Business Council has advocated for the government to commit to a debt-servicing-to-revenue ratio no higher than 10 per cent. Maintaining this threshold is essential to safeguarding fiscal sustainability, attracting investment and ensuring flexibility for future priorities.  

Postponing immediate tax reductions in favour of long-term stability would send a strong signal of fiscal discipline and responsibility. 

Moving forward together 

A strong partnership between private sector employers and government is essential to driving growth, accelerating nation-building projects, and positioning Canada as a more innovative and productive economy. Our members stand ready to support efforts that will move our country forward. This work depends on trust, policy clarity, and shared purpose. We encourage your government to work closely with the private sector to align incentives, reduce red tape and unlock private capital.  

It is equally vital to renew federal, provincial and Indigenous collaboration. The challenges ahead—whether related to infrastructure, energy, housing or innovation—require a united national approach. Provinces, territories and Indigenous peoples must be meaningfully involved in shaping national strategies, and they must be empowered to contribute in their own way to Canada’s success going forward. We urge you to make intergovernmental partnership and collaboration a central pillar of your leadership. 

The Business Council of Canada is committed to partnering with your government to deliver results. I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you and your team to discuss how we can help turn priorities into action. Our members, and the millions of Canadians they employ, have a direct stake in Canada’s success. You can count on us to do our part in helping build a stronger, more resilient country for all. 

Thank you for your consideration, and once again, congratulations on your mandate. 

Sincerely, 

Goldy Hyder