On August 22, the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal unveiled the priorities of the city’s business community as the beginning of the federal election campaign approaches.
Various economic indicators and confidence indices confirm the momentum that Greater Montréal has been experiencing for the past several years. The Chamber emphasizes the importance of maintaining this momentum through concrete commitments from the parties to implement measures that ensure an agile and competitive business environment for companies and workers.
With this in mind, the Chamber has targeted key actions that will be necessary to support the city’s prosperity. These priorities are organized into six themes and stated in 13 requests:
Support four strategic issues for Greater Montréal
- Commit to contributing $350 million over the course of the next mandate towards the decontamination and economic rehabilitation of eastern Montréal’s industrial areas.
- Support the growth of the Port of Montreal and ensure that it has access to the financing required to carry out the Contrecoeur terminal expansion project.
- Make Canadian airport financing more flexible by opening the door to private partners up to a maximum of 20% of the capital.
- Ensure the rapid execution of the high frequency rail project between Québec City and Windsor.
Promote competitive taxation and clean up public finances
- Improve the competitiveness of the Canadian tax environment and lower corporate taxes so that they are lower than those in the United States.
- Systematically levy sales taxes on products and services purchased online, including digital content. Otherwise, exempt all e-transactions from these taxes.
- Adopt a plan to balance the budget within the next four years that includes intermediary targets.
Support innovation and digital transformation in business
- Maintain the Innovation Superclusters Initiative and maximize its effects through a Canadian economic development strategy that includes support programs for the adoption of artificial intelligence, particularly in SMEs.
- Accelerate investment in 5G technology across Canada and support the deployment of cutting-edge digital infrastructure.
- Increase the number of temporary workers that meet the needs of the job market and reinforce measures that facilitate the transition from temporary to permanent status in collaboration with the provinces.
Stimulate domestic trade
- Adopt an ambitious domestic trade acceleration strategy and remove barriers to interprovincial trade.
Accelerate the transition to clean energy
- Increase support to companies that are working in the green technology sector and participating in efforts to decarbonize the Canadian economy.
- Maintain a carbon tax system and use the revenue generated by the fight against climate change to finance clean energy transition efforts.
The full recommendations can be found here