Chamber Blog ~ January 2013

Today, we issued a report entitled Mining Capital: How Canada Transformed Its Resources Endowment Into a Global Competitive Advantage. In our report, we examine how Canada has leveraged its metal and mineral endowment not just by extracting and processing raw materials, but also by creating and marketing the knowledge of how to develop these resources. While Canada has successfully transformed its resource advantage in mining into a competitive edge across several connected industries, including the vast array of suppliers, service providers and professionals that help support miners and prospectors both in Canada and abroad, we need to ensure the factors that made us the global leader in the sector are strengthened. New investments in both physical and intangible infrastructure are needed to maintain our competitive advantage in mining.

We're very concerned about new “anti-spam” rules the federal government announced two weeks ago. Canadian anti-spam legislation and the corresponding regulations have taken a “ban-all” approach to regulating commercial electronic messages (CEMs). All emails, SMS texts, social media sent in a commercial context are captured. The legislation will obligate the sender to obtain consent from the receiver prior to sending a CEM. That consent may not be obtained by sending a CEM. The definitions for consent are quite specific and are more demanding than existing privacy legislation.

Today, we issued a report entitled Electricity in Canada: Smart Investment to Power Future Competitiveness. In our report, we argue that as Canada continues to define its place as a responsible energy producer, electricity—and the sector responsible for its production, transmission and distribution—will play a significant role in Canada’s energy future.

I’m in Washington today to watch as President Obama begins a second term in the White House. Like many Canadians, I will be watching closely to see what this next phase of his presidency will mean for us. The combination of slow growth and political uncertainty south of the border means that we are understandably looking for new opportunities overseas. Yet, while we continue to explore opportunities in Europe and Asia, we cannot turn our backs to our North American allies.

On Jan. 16, the federal government released the report from the Panel on Labour Market Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce participated in the panel discussions held over the fall and we believe it is time for Canadian businesses to step up to the challenge of employing more people with disabilities. A success factor of this initiative will be our ability, as businesses, to create fully inclusive workplaces. It is imperative that we dispel the numerous myths that currently exist. Of course this will require innovation, patience and perseverance but we are up to the challenge.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce supports the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. The National Standard, which was developed in collaboration with the Mental Health Commission of the Canada, the Bureau de normalisation du Québec and CSA Standards, is a voluntary standard that will provide employers with guidelines for promoting and protecting the psychological health of their employees.

In its report, Counterfeiting in the Canadian Market: How Do We Stop It?, the Canadian Intellectual Property Council points out continuing weakness in Canada’s intellectual property rights regime that undermine innovation, our economic prosperity and our security. The CIPC works under our banner to protect and improve intellectual property rights.