Time to think bigger and bolder to strengthen Canada’s role on the global stage

While we appeared to have a 30-day reprieve from the threat of US tariffs, it proved short-lived, interrupted last week by renewed tariff threats against our steel and aluminum industry.

In this unpredictable environment, it’s critical that we focus on solutions within our control. These include incentivizing productivity-enhancing business investment, removing interprovincial trade barriers and further embracing and scaling disruptive technologies like generative artificial intelligence.

While progress on any of these solutions will be welcome, this new reality also implores Canada to explore even bolder moves and build on our strengths.

Thinking bigger is essential as the world undergoes profound shifts and traditional boundaries between sectors erode. Now is the time for existing players and new entrants to collaborate in technology-enabled business ecosystems to take advantage of emerging opportunities and address challenges. 

Consider the example of technology giants moving into nuclear power generation to supply greenhouse gas emissions-free electricity to their power-hungry data centres, making them players in the utilities business. How can these types of ecosystems fuel growth and job creation? In this example, data centres that store raw data do not by themselves employ a lot of people; however, the real opportunity lies in going a step further to think of these data centres as data refineries that process and transform raw data into high-quality, value-added data.

In addition to being stand-alone entities, these data refineries are catalysts for geographically concentrated ecosystems around their facilities. By clustering various players within the value chain, from emerging technology companies to service providers, these hubs spur higher productivity and job creation.

This is just one example of how industry reconfiguration can benefit countries like ours. It’s also an area where Canada has distinct advantages given our vast resources, like clean energy, engineering capabilities, water and land, to attract new businesses and the ecosystems built around them.

If we’re willing to think differently about our economic future, renewed excitement and opportunities will emerge from the current crisis. 

There’s no doubt about the urgent need to strengthen Canada’s economic foundations. In PwC’s latest Global CEO Survey, only 4% of chief executive officers around the world selected Canada as a key destination for capital investment this year. Despite being a G7 economy, we didn’t even make the top 10 countries identified by global CEOs as investment priorities.

From the success of our pension funds to the resources of our thriving private equity, banking, and asset and wealth management sectors, we have the capital we need to transform our economy and support companies reinventing their business models. When we consider our vibrant technology sector and incredible talent across business and academia, together with our abundant natural resources, it’s clear Canada brings a unique competitive advantage to emerging business ecosystems. This can help us further strengthen our knowledge-based economy.

We have what it takes to be more innovative, productive and globally competitive, but we need to see deeper collaboration across business, academia and society. This is why it’s great so many voices are coming together to talk about how to make Canada stronger and more resilient.

By embracing innovation and harnessing our strengths, we can build a Canada that not only overcomes today’s challenges but also carves itself a bigger role on the global stage.