By Deborah Aarts | Public Policy Forum
Public Policy Forum’s Canada Growth Summit 2025 gathered some of Canada’s top leaders and policy minds. Here are some of their biggest and brightest ideas.
No Canadian has any doubt of the magnitude of this economic moment. As U.S. President Donald Trump’s mercurial tariff mandate unleashes market mayhem and geopolitical unease, Canadians have galvanized — buying local, putting the maple leaf on everything, ratcheting our elbows way up.
Which may explain the pronounced air of intent at the Public Policy Forum’s 2025 Canada Growth Summit, which took place this week at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel. Over the course of a dozen sessions, more than 40 speakers put forward a series of smart, actionable ideas for how governments, businesses, policymakers and communities can work together to advance our collective fortune.
There was plenty of debate — when isn’t there when you put more than 400 heavily caffeinated wonks, politicians and businesspeople in the same room? — but as the day unfolded, a few themes emerged. This is a moment for pragmatic clarity, not wishful thinking; for focus, not blue-sky experimentation. It’s a time to, finally, activate our long-lamented untapped economic potential.
Here are 10 of the day’s best ideas to make that happen, including reflections from SCP’s CEO Matthew Mendelsohn on the role of policy in attracting business investment in Canada.
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The problem with GDP per capita | West of Centre on CBC
New research by economist and SCP Fellow Gillian Petit estimates what Canada’s GDP per capita would have been over the past decade if Canada had kept our temporary resident numbers stable. On CBC political podcast West of Centre, host Rob Brown asks Petit to dissect the metric politicians love to wield. GDP measures total output, while GDP per capita divides that sum by the population. She explains that the simple math offers an easy snapshot, but can mislead when used alone. For a true read on prosperity, Petit argues Canada needs a broader economic dashboard that weighs productivity, fairness and long term well being.
Blame the denominator, not the economy
Over the last couple of years, there have been countless articles warning of Canada’s poor economic performance. The mic drop has increasingly been Canada’s poor performance relative to peer countries on “GDP per capita,” with growth rankings used to draw a variety of sweeping, negative conclusions about Canada’s economy. SCP CEO Matthew Mendelsohn and Policy Director Dan Skilleter draw on economist and SCP Fellow Dr. Gillian Petit's new research to explain why GDP per capita is a deeply flawed measurement for evaluating rich countries - and is easily influenced by a variety of factors having little to do with economic performance or economic well-being.
Non-Permanent Residents and their impact on GDP per capita | Summary
New research by economist and SCP Fellow Gillian Petit estimates what Canada’s GDP per capita would have been over the past decade if Canada had kept our temporary resident numbers stable. She also estimates the expected impact on GDP per capita in the coming years due strictly to planned reductions in Canada's intake of non-permanent residents. Among key findings: Canada’s GDP per capita is misleading and should not be used as if it were the sole indicator of economic well-being. Plus, if we had maintained our temporary resident numbers at two percent of the population in recent years, Canada’s GDP per capita would look much more like our peer countries: a little bit ahead of countries like Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia and a little bit lower than countries like Belgium, Sweden and France.