Chamber speaks to challenges

Canadian Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Perrin Beatty was amongst the speakers at last week's B.C. Chamber of Commerce AGM in Prince Rupert, and spoke about the current economic climate in the country and some of the challenges and initiatives impacting business in Canada.
While saying that Canada was better off than many countries around the globe when it comes to weathering the economic storm, Beatty said it is still the biggest challenge facing the county's business community for a number of reasons.
"What is disturbing right now is that countries are turning inwards because of the recession. With things like the Buy American idea in the U.S. we are seeing Canadian companies being shut out of bidding on contracts that they used to win," he said, noting that the G20 countries all agreed that would only worsen to recession only to see 17 of those countries putting up trade barriers.
"There is nothing government can do and no law it can pass to end the current global recession. What the Canadian government can do is to mitigate the impact it has and that is what it is doing with a stimulus package. But that cannot be spread across the county like jam - that would not work. It should be strategically used for projects that will have a long-term impact."
And, said Beatty, those challenges are only being compounded by the current state of affairs in Parliament.
"One of the biggest issues that we face politically is that it is likely that we will be facing an election in the coming year. It could be as early as this fall...That means the main focus in this minority Parliament has turned from 'where will Canada be in four years' to 'where will my party be at the next election'," he said.
One area where Beatty praised the province was when it came to the controversial Trade and Investment Mobility Agreement (TILMA) between B.C. and Alberta.
"We have trade barriers between Canadian provinces that would be illegal between European countries...When I was in Cabinet during the Free Trade Agreement negotiations 21 years ago, if you had told me that we would have free trade with the U.S. but not between Canadian provinces I would have never believed you," he said.
"With TILMA, you are leaders in breaking down trade barriers."