In what it describes as an annual tradition, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce has presented its Top 10 Barriers to Competitiveness in 2016.
"In a fiercely competitive world, business needs more than its own skills to win—it also needs a supportive environment and public policies to encourage competitiveness. This annual list of barriers points to economic hurdles of our own making, self-imposed limits on the growth of Canadian businesses. Through this initiative, the Canadian Chamber is bringing these barriers to the forefront and is urging all stakeholders to act more swiftly to improve our country’s ability to compete globally."
“Although the policies involved may have started with positive goals, they now hinder business success, and many of the issues on our list were repeated from previous years,” said Chamber President and CEO, Perrin Beatty. “We need to act now. We’ve identified a series of improvements that can be put in place rapidly. We ask the government to remove these obstacles before conditions worsen.
“These barriers are of our own making. They are the result of acting wrongly or failing to act at all, but we can eliminate them if we have the will to do so,” Beatty said. “Government can provide the leadership to remove these hurdles. This is the opportunity to take another step towards a Canada that wins.”
The top ten barriers the Chamber of Commerce lists:
1. Public policies block small companies from becoming bigger. Only 1.4% of mid-sized Canadian firms become big businesses.
2. Canada is vulnerable to cyber crime, losing $3.12 billion to cyber crime per year.
3. Canada’s trade agenda—new agreements are just the start. Canada needs to help businesses scale up internationally.
4. Canadian resources cannot get to world markets. Canadian energy products are exported nearly exclusively to the United States because Canada lacks the infrastructure to get these products to markets abroad.
5. Poor literacy, numeracy and digital skills are limiting productivity in segments of Canada’s workforce.
6. Canada needs a more aggressive and effective innovation strategy. Federal R&D expenditures as a proportion of GDP have fallen by a quarter in just five years.
7. Canada is not ready for climate change. Canada needs clear federal policy on carbon regulation and a climate adaptation strategy.
8. Internal barriers to trade cost Canadians billions and restrict investment. To get free trade within Canada, the federal government should apply pressure on the provinces and expand the right of private parties to seek redress.
9. Lack of clarity regarding businesses’ responsibilities to Aboriginal peoples constrains investment. Canada needs meaningful reconciliation with its Aboriginal peoples; however, it is not clear to businesses what reconciliation means and what they need to do to do their part in achieving it.
10. Canada’s brand does not support business competitiveness. The world sees Canada as a great place to live but not to do business, and Canada has not been doing a good job at changing those perceptions.