Competitiveness

Canada’s economic performance has improved dramatically since the early 1990s. Canada is the only major industrialized country enjoying consistent surpluses both in its federal budgets and in its trade and current accounts. Economic growth has been the best in the G-7 over the past five years, driving the unemployment rate to its lowest levels since the 1970s and producing impressive gains in family income, profits and tax revenues. But in an era of rapid change and global flows, Canada cannot rest on its laurels. To drive future progress, the CCCE identified four strategic thrusts at the CEO Summit 2000 in Toronto:

1. Be a leader, not a follower. Innovation leads to change, and change is disruptive. Growth in today's environment requires change, and Canada will not flourish unless we become more willing to prune dead branches to make way for new growth.
2. Support people rather than jobs. Governments should focus on building Canada's human advantage by giving people the tools they need to get ahead and encouraging them to put these tools to use wherever in Canada opportunities arise.
3. Focus on innovation, not just ideas. New ideas are valuable only if they lead to innovation, to new products and processes. Canada's challenge is to turn more of the ideas flowing from its research into successful global businesses.
4. Reward success instead of subsidizing failure. To ensure that every possible path to innovation and growth is pursued, Canadian investors, managers and entrepreneurs need to be more ready to take risks. The tax and regulatory environment must reward them sufficiently for doing so.