Blog

Prime Minister Mark Carney has a monumental task to lead Canadians through the turmoil of a second Donald Trump term, while also addressing various crises: affordability, housing, toxic drugs and health care, to name a few. For Truthout, Nora Loreto interviewed SCP Fellow Silas Xuereb about the crises that loomed over Canada's recent federal election and one fundamental cause that was never clearly identified: concentrated corporate power.

Scaling up access to school meals through Canada's National School Food Policy is a big win for children and families. As SCP Fellow Sarah Doyle and SCP Advisor Alex Himelfarb outline, the program could also be a win for agrifood businesses, the climate and workers, contributing to a more resilient, just, sustainable and less dependent Canadian economy. The key is an ambitious and strategic approach to food procurement—one that shifts the focus from minimizing price to maximizing public value.

Certain partisans have been citing Canada's performance on per capita GDP as evidence of a supposed 'lost decade' and economic mismanagement. In Policy Options, economist and director of the Centre for Future Work Jim Stanford deconstructs this arbitrary and misleading statistic. In the first of a two-part analysis, he explains multiple factors affecting both the numerator and denominator in this headline-grabbing number and how recent trends in GDP per capita say more about rapid immigration than about Canada’s overall economic health.

Some business and political commentators cite a growing gap between the per capita GDP of Canada and the U.S. as evidence of Canada’s purported economic dysfunction. In Policy Options, economist and director of the Centre for Future Work Jim Stanford deconstructs this arbitrary and misleading statistic. In the second of a two-part analysis, he explains how Canada is not poorer than Alabama and how, despite lower economic growth per person, most Canadians earn more, live longer and fare better than Americans.

Many Canadian businesses and workers are facing looming furloughs and layoffs. As CEO of Challenge Factory Lisa Taylor argues, these workforce disruptions should be seen as an opportunity to invest in our workers, in our businesses and industries and in the future we want for our families and communities. We must evolve government programs to incentivize businesses to train and upskill workers to meet new market demands and execute on new strategies, rather than lay those employees off. Recovery from workforce shocks is possible with creative ways to reinvent and transform.

Canada’s pension funds need to step up and help the Canadian economy pivot. They can do so in keeping with their fiduciary duty to their contributors, but in a way that builds long-term economic resilience. SCP's Matthew Mendelsohn and Michelle Arnold argue that defenders of the status quo are mistaken in their analysis, and that the federal government can use its fiscal power in targeted ways to get more capital into the hands of Canadian businesses and communities.

For small businesses across Canada, a lack of commercial tenancy protections means unexpected rent increases, undue financial distress and even threat of closure. As SCP Fellow Liliana Locke argues, there are jurisdictions that have solved for commercial rent hikes that we can learn from in this moment. Smart policy in the commercial rent market would provide Canada’s small businesses the vital stability they need to sustain and grow their businesses through these turbulent economic times.

In this election, Canadians are looking for a leader who will stand up to economic threats from our mercurial and adversarial neighbour. But how, Matthew Mendelsohn asks, will the ideas on offer help workers, regular people, not-for-profits and smaller and medium-sized businesses transition to the emerging new world order? Yes, Canada needs economic growth, but it needs to be the kind that enriches working Canadians, not just not just large financial and corporate interests.

A combination of rising U.S. tariffs, a weakening Canadian dollar and a generation of business owners nearing retirement has created the perfect storm for a wave of foreign takeovers. SCP's Michelle Arnold, Futurpreneur's Karen Greve Young and Venture for Canada's Scott Stirrett on how a few targeted policy changes could enable aspiring entrepreneurs to buy existing businesses, keeping jobs and ownership local while injecting fresh energy into our Canadian economy.

From fighter jets to TikTok, nothing is off the table when Canadians talk about how best to counter Trump's economic assault on Canada. SCP brings you some creative, crowdsourced policy ideas gathered by our Chair Jon Shell on a recent LinkedIn post. More evidence that new voices entering the policy discussion will help us get through the current crisis and emerge in a more hopeful place.