Barriers in key sectors are limiting Canada’s ability to unlock its economic potential and compete more effectively in global markets, a new report suggests.
The report from PwC Canada and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce found common barriers across the country and among various sectors, such as slow regulatory permitting processes, limited capital for growth, and costly infrastructure bottlenecks.
The authors noted Canada has significant advantages—including its natural resources, research capabilities, highly skilled workforce and access to international markets—but say it has struggled to turn those strengths into sustained economic growth and global competitiveness.
“We know Canada has enormous advantages along with a common problem—we can be slow and we don’t follow through enough to turn those advantages into results,” Canadian Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Candace Laing said in a press release. “Building out these incomplete value chains will mean a better life for families, workers and communities. It’s time to be bold because, thankfully, closing these gaps is well within our control.”
The report incorporates perspectives from prominent business executives and key stakeholders across sectors such as artificial intelligence, mining and critical minerals, energy, defence, and agriculture.
The barriers identified vary from sector-to-sector, but each one is within Canada’s power to resolve, according to the report.
Canada’s geological resources are plentiful, but few projects progress quickly and production can take as long as 10 to 15 years, the report said. It also highlighted the cost and time associated with constructing mines and processing facilities as deterrents to private sector investment.
In the energy sector, despite Canada’s being a major producer, 85 percent of its exports go to the United States. The report said new infrastructure is needed to unlock opportunities in different markets.
Issues also exist in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, according to the authors. Although Canada established itself as an early pioneer, companies that are still in the growth phase often encounter financing issues.
The defence sector faces procurement issues, the authors said, arguing that without reforms to Canada’s acquisition framework and investment in domestic capabilities, higher defence budgets risk fuelling a surge in foreign purchases with fewer benefits to local firms.
In agriculture, Canada competes on an “uneven playing field” against state-owned and state-supported competitors with different cost structures and regulatory frameworks. Canadian producers often also face higher carbon, regulatory, and infrastructure costs, the report found.
The report says Canada must overcome structural economic roadblocks to capitalize on alignment between global demand and national strengths in energy, critical minerals, agri-food, defence, and technology.
“Canada has the companies and talent to produce more global champions, but experience shows market forces alone have not been enough to get them there,” the authors said.
They argued that if structural barriers such as growth-stage capital gaps, slow procurement, fragmented policy support, and limited domestic demand signals are not addressed in a timely fashion, governments may need to “play a more active role in fostering globally competitive Canadian firms.”
To reach that potential, the authors suggest Canada needs a new model of public-private collaboration with a more business-oriented public sector.
“Canada faces a clear choice: continue exporting its resources, talent, and ideas while much of the resulting value is captured elsewhere, or create the conditions to commercialize, scale, and retain more of that value at home,” they wrote. “The opportunity is substantial, but seizing it will require greater urgency, focus, coordination, and strategic ambition—sustained over the long term rather than renewed only in response to changing economic or political cycles.”
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