Time to move past Trump's tariffs and focus on boosting growth, Chamber of Commerce tells Liberals

OTTAWA — It’s time to move past the battle against the trade threats from U.S. President Donald Trump and focus more on boosting Canadian competitiveness, one of the country’s most influential business groups told the Carney government in its pre-budget submission.

In a document sent this week to the House of Commons finance committee, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce said it’s urgent that governments cut excessive red tape and permitting delays, boost domestic capital markets, dismantle interprovincial trade barriers and slash taxes so that Canadian companies can compete better with those in the United States and elsewhere.

“If the theme for 2025 was strengthening Canada’s resilience in the face of external trade threats,” the chamber advises in its submission, “then our collective focus for 2026 must be on fostering Canadian competitiveness.”

David Pierce, the chamber’s vice-president of government relations, said the Canadian economy needs more than small moves around the margins to stay competitive and attract investment. “I think a big swing is needed.”

The chamber’s submission, obtained by National Post, was delivered to the parliamentary finance committee Tuesday, but has not yet been posted publicly or sent to Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne. It marks the second pre-budget submission unveiled this week from a major business group that calls on the Liberal government to take an aggressive swing at improving competitiveness and economic growth.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), which represents more than 100,000 independent or small businesses, said in its submission that Canada is facing an “entrepreneurial drought” in that more businesses have closed their doors over the last four quarters than have been launched, despite the country’s growing population.

CFIB’s policy wish list included a cut to the small business income tax rate, changes to make capital investments more enticing and adopt a range of measures to make hiring more attractive.

The Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, told the committee that Canada can’t compete internationally with a tax and regulatory regime that is seen as slower, more cumbersome and less friendly to investment. The organization calls on the Carney government to review income tax policy to ensure that Canadian business taxes are on a level playing field with the U.S.; streamline and digitize processes to reduce the regulatory burden on business; and expand eligibility for the clean technology manufacturing investment tax credit.

The chamber also encouraged the government to establish an independent Canadian Resources Advisory Council to support the “responsible development” of the energy industry, change the labour code to add more resolution tools so that supply chains aren’t disrupted and consider attaching strings to major federal transfers to encourage provinces and territories to eliminate costly internal trade and labour mobility barriers.