Canada has everything it takes to create prosperity — boundless resources, brilliant people, and the stability and strength to turn potential into power.
But Canada’s prosperity is under pressure, largely caused by a lack of business investment.
Part Two of BCA’s From Barriers to Breakthroughs series — The High Cost of Low Investment — examines the roots of Canada’s weak capital investment. While some forces are global, the most important challenges are due to the choices we make at home: government messaging and policy signals, and our tax and regulatory systems.
From Barriers to Breakthroughs is a research series focused on identifying the most significant policy, regulatory and tax obstacles to business investment in Canada.
A Problem Decades in the Making
While our global competitors race ahead, Canada has tied its own hands together with red tape.
- A national economy losing momentum: Canada is a nation in stagnation. We have experienced a “lost decade” in which our standards of living are slacking, wages have barely grown, and labour productivity remains sluggish. To become the strongest economy in the G7, reversing this trend is essential.
- Business investment matters: Since 2014, business investment per worker has declined by nearly 3% annually, with weakness across a range of industries. Business investment in Canada lags well behind other advanced economies, and is growing at half the pace as in the U.S.
- An unattractive investment environment: Over time, bad policy, overlapping regulations, slow approvals, and an uncompetitive tax system have made it harder for businesses to want to invest here, which stymies Canada’s growth.
The good news: recent government actions suggest a recognition of some of these challenges, signalling that meaningful reform is possible. But there is much more that needs to be done to drive Canadian productivity and fuel tangible, long-term growth.
The Roadmap to Renewal
Simply put, businesses aren’t investing enough in Canada because it isn’t an attractive place to invest. Whether local companies or foreign enterprises, they see too many obstacles and not enough opportunity.
Complex rules, slow approvals, and an uncompetitive tax system have created uncertainty and hesitation, leaving us behind while our peers race ahead.
The roadmap to renewal is clear: faster and more predictable project approvals; smarter tax policy that incentivizes growth; and a regulatory and policy environment that enables ambition and competitiveness.
Create a positive and investment-friendly policy environment
- Canada’s approval process is too slow, complex, and uncertain
- The Building Canada Act helps but applies to too few projects
- A streamlined, consistent system is needed to attract investment
Ensure faster, more predictable project approvals and a lower regulatory burden
-
Businesses face overlapping rules and high compliance costs
-
Support programs are fragmented, hard to access, and often ineffective
-
Canada needs a clearer, more stable policy environment to restore investor confidence
Develop a modernized tax regime, rewarding investment, innovation and growth
- Canada’s tax system is outdated and hinders investment and business growth
-
Global competitors are advancing tax reforms to attract capital
-
Canada must simplify and modernize its tax system to stay competitive
Get the Full Story — Start Here.
Part one of From Barriers to Breakthroughs identified immediate actions the federal government can take to signal a new era of economic ambition, strengthen investor confidence, and unleash the potential of Canada’s natural resource sector.
Stay Informed
Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know when Part II of From Barriers to Breakthroughs is released—along with other key insights, research, and policy updates from the Business Council of Alberta.
Media Inquiries
For more information on this project or to arrange an interview with a spokesperson, please contact: media@businesscouncilab.com