A Blueprint for Canadians’ prosperity and a thriving economy - an executive summary

Banks in Canada continue to work with Canadians and governments across the country to build on our current foundation and to position Canada for long-term success and prosperity. Through the following 13 recommendations, the Blueprint seeks to create a robust and resilient economic environment. 

Setting the foundation for job creation and economic growth for Canadians 

When businesses small and large succeed, jobs and wealth are created for Canadian workers. Canada needs to embrace a plan to foster entrepreneurship, remove barriers for small businesses and prioritize economic growth. Actions needed from the government:

1. Enable job creation and economic opportunity by removing barriers to accessing credit for starting and growing small businesses – reviewing the prudential regulatory treatment of small business loans to ensure that they are not unnecessarily constricting credit. 

2. Enable small businesses to participate in major government contracts, grow their business, create jobs and drive economic opportunity – making it easier for small businesses to access credit and create jobs, therefore helping build the infrastructure Canada needs. 

3. Set and meet an ambitious target for making Canada tax competitive for businesses and workers – recommitting to a clear and bold target. 

4. Create a tax system that encourages personal investment, business growth and productivity growth to secure Canadians’ financial future – among other solutions: ending the double taxation of investment in Canadian companies, avoiding retroactive taxation, and phasing out sector-specific taxes that distort investment decisions and damage the savings and investments of millions of Canadians. 

Creating jobs for Canadians through improve productivity

To accommodate a growing Canada, we need higher wages and better jobs for Canadian workers. Actions needed from the government:

5. Enable job creation, economic growth, and improved productivity – ensuring regulators and policymakers consider the competitiveness and productivity impacts of their decisions across all sectors and follow a transparent decision-making process.

Making sure Canadians continue to benefit from our highly competitive and secure financial services system

Canadians should be able to benefit from a competitive, innovative and efficient financial services sector. Actions needed from the government:

6. Ensure consistent consumer protection in line with what is provided by Canada’s banks – holding all existing and new non-bank payment service providers and new entrants to the same high consumer protection standards followed by Canada’s banks.

7. Meet evolving consumer needs in a digital and data driven economy – implementing a made-in-Canada consumer-driven banking framework, along with a regulatory environment that does not impede growth and innovation.

8. Empower consumers with greater choice when accessing financial services digitally – ensuring that digital service providers and device suppliers cannot restrict the choices offered to Canadians when making payments and conducting financial transactions.

Keeping Canadians safe

We need to protect Canadians from evolving threats to their physical and financial security. Canada needs to become a harder target for fraudsters and scam artists. Actions needed from the government:

9. Protect Canadians' finances and personal information – supporting the efforts of the anti-scam alliance where financial institutions, technology platforms, telecommunications companies, governments and law enforcement are jointly working on solutions to protect Canadians from scams.

10. Make life safer for Canadians, reduce violent crimes and related social issues – evolving Canada’s AML regime into a risk-based framework that is fit for the purpose of combatting money laundering and terrorist financing.

Making housing more affordable and available to Canadians

The solution to Canada’s housing crisis is more supply, with reduced housing costs and a simplified home ownership process. Actions needed from the government:

11. Make housing more available and affordable for all Canadians – reducing premiums on construction of multi-unit properties and improving mortgage funding and securitization for multi-unit properties.

Creating jobs and economic opportunity for Canadians with faster approvals of major projects

Canada has the unfortunate reputation of a place where major projects cannot proceed or take too long, which deters investment.  Actions needed from the government:

12. Attract quality jobs for workers and higher wages and

13. Boost the economic activity that will lead to higher productivity and a higher quality of life for Canadians – streamlining approval processes while reducing red tape on major projects and prioritizing public private partnerships to make Canada a more attractive place to do business.

The choices we make today will determine the Canada we leave for future generations and make Canada’s economy more resilient. Together, we can turn challenges into opportunities and strengthen the foundation for shared prosperity.