| FUTURE CANADA |
| 18 Big Ideas to Supercharge Canada’s Economy |
| By Claire Porter Robbins |
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| Canada is at a crossroads. We have an increasingly complex relationship with our southern neighbour and a brand-new government — plus a housing crisis, an affordability crisis, and heaps and heaps of uncertainty over AI, productivity, trade, and the job market. People are understandably anxious about how all this will shake out and, more broadly, about Canada’s place in the world. But here’s the thing about being at a crossroads: it presents a rare opportunity to try fresh approaches and take fast action. And Canada, to its good fortune, has lots of smart people who can help on both fronts, especially when it comes to boosting business and the economy.
That’s why this week, instead of our normal news analysis, we contacted dozens of influential Canadians and asked them each to share one bold idea for transforming the economy. (Some of them couldn’t limit themselves to just one!) We got so many ideas that we’re dedicating this entire edition of TLDR to them. We’re not here to endorse anything, but we do admire the ambition of the ideas, and we hope some inspire you or force you to think. We’d love to hear your big ideas; below, you can enter yours in a pop-up window after you rate today’s edition. Now, let’s get to it: Scrap single-family zoning laws in all major cities |
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| Stop ‘sin taxes’ on new homes “Taxes account for 25% of the cost of a new home in the GTA. Governments need to recognize that new housing construction is not a sin and not discourage it through the tax system.” —Mike Moffatt, founding director of Missing Middle Initiative Expand affordable child-care programs Make competition a priority for finance regulators Use the tax code to turbo-charge business investment… … and keep our homegrown entrepreneurs from fleeing south Build new transportation corridors — fast |
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| Safeguard Canada’s trade sovereignty “Canada’s long-term infrastructure plans should include a new icebreaker fleet to secure our northern sovereignty. This will reduce our defence dependence on the U.S. and help us build resilience for the next 100 years.” —Patrick Pichette, former CFO of Google Cut red tape for skilled refugees… A Sudanese professor in Somalia shouldn’t have to cross another border to give her fingerprints at a Canadian embassy, but that’s the case if she wants to immigrate to Canada. Let’s remove burdensome requirements and enable displaced individuals to leverage their skills for Canada.” —Dana Wagner, co-founder and managing director of TalentLift Canada … and get rid of the ‘Canadian experience’ work requirement catch-22 More government grants for bleeding-edge tech Incentivize employee ownership Launch a nationwide Made-in-Canada industrial campaign “Let’s use Canadian steel and aluminum to build subways, buses, and ships right here in Canada, putting Canadians to work.” —Lana Payne, president of Unifor Canada |
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| Improve parental leave benefits for entrepreneurs “Founders who own over 40% of their business only qualify for a special Employment Insurance (EI) program that requires registration a full year in advance. If small businesses are the backbone of our economy, we should support them whenever they grow their families. The government should: a) provide support regardless of reported self-employment income; b) allow EI access regardless of ownership share; and c) offer flexible leave.” —Erin Bury, co-founder and CEO of Willful Launch a national hunger-alleviation program “Twenty-five percent of Canadians face food insecurity. Reducing hunger would benefit citizens as well as drive economic growth, because it’s hard to be productive when you’re hungry. Canada should implement a program where people earning over $250,000 a year contribute $1,000 annually to food banks. If the provinces matched these contributions by 3x–1x and the federal government did by 2x, the program would generate $1.2 billion annually.” —Patrick Pichette, former CFOof Google Friday afternoons off for everyone! “Switching to a four-and-a-half-day workweek has improved our teams’ mental and physical health and their productivity. And we are just as effective in four and a half days versus five. —Erin Bury, co-founder and CEO of Willful Break up Canada’s telecom oligopoly Capitalize on the skills and experience of older Canadians |