OTTAWA, June 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Canada’s largest and most influential business association, today laid out its plans to heal Canada’s economy. The Roadmap to Recovery examines nine key challenges and identifies 51 specific recommendations governments should adopt to overcome them.
“Canada, and the world, have deep economic wounds that require a dedicated plan to make sure we get out of this crisis. Governments must be as agile and determined in pursuing economic growth as it has been in responding to the virus. Our response must rise to the measure of the challenge before it,” said Perrin Beatty, President and CEO, Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
Where we find ourselves is in a transitional phase where we will have to live with the virus in our midst, without any absolute guarantees, but managing the risks involved carefully and responsibly while increasing our economic and social activities.
Full recovery is a long way off, but recovery starts with resilience. The government’s response spared millions of Canadians from economic disaster. Measures like the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and the Canada Emergency Business Account have provided urgently needed assistance to Canadian workers and businesses, helping to ensure they will be there to propel our economic recovery.
As provinces and territories begin to reopen, Canada must prepare to transition away from a subsidy-based crisis response toward economic stimulus and getting Canadians back to work, while ensuring their health and safety. We will need to encourage investment and business activities that will create jobs and generate the revenue needed to offset the extraordinarily high levels of public spending during the emergency.
The Canadian Chamber’s Roadmap to Recovery lays out the following economic challenges that we will need to overcome:
- Getting Canadians back to work
- Keeping supply chains and people moving
- Managing debt and deficits
- Navigating global fragmentation
- Adopting technology and innovation
- Ensuring a resilient resource sector
- Planning for SME business continuity
- Strengthening our public health infrastructure
- Rethinking government’s role and priorities
This will be no easy task. For Canada’s recovery plan to succeed, our policymakers will need a singular focus on economic fundamentals and on promoting growth. A growth-focused plan will unlock economic capacity, fuel job creation and promote new business investment. By working together, we can forge a path to recovery that is inclusive, environmentally responsible and innovative.
“In the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic, it is difficult to think beyond confronting the immediate effects of COVID-19. However, even as we continue supporting each other today, we must also begin looking over the horizon to the post-COVID-19 world. We must be bold and innovative, and avoid the temptation to seek comfortable solutions in an increasingly uncomfortable world. We need to start planning how our country and economy can emerge stronger,” added Beatty.
The Roadmap to Recovery was developed in partnership with the Canadian Business Resilience Network’s vast network of over 450 chambers of commerce and boards of trade and more than 100 of Canada’s most important business and industry associations. The full text and recommendations can be found here.
The Roadmap to Recovery is part of the ongoing relief and recovery effort of the Canadian Business Resilience Network. Supported by the Government of Canada and led by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the network is a coordinated, business-led, inclusive campaign to help businesses emerge from this crisis and drive Canada’s economic recovery.
About the Canadian Chamber of Commerce – Because Business Matters
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce helps build the businesses that support our families, our communities and our country. We do this by influencing government policy, by providing essential business services and by connecting businesses to information they can use, to opportunities for growth and to a network of local chambers, businesses, decision-makers and peers from across the country, in every sector of the economy and at all levels of government, as well as internationally. We are unapologetic in our support for business and the vital role it plays in building and sustaining our great nation.
For more information, please contact:
Canadian Chamber of Commerce
Phil Taylor at ptaylor@chamber.ca