Canadian industry has lost hundreds of billions worth of investment funds to red tape, which is the greatest barrier to attracting foreign investment, says Pierre Poilievre, while noting the country has to reform its tax system to retain the workforce that investors and businesses need.
Speaking to reporters on Oct. 30 at his first press conference as the Leader of the Conservative Party, Poilievre addressed a question about how Canada can attract more affluent investors from around the world.
“I think the problem we have in attracting investment from anywhere around the world is [Canada] is becoming a very difficult place to get anything built,” he said.
“So we have Canadians invest $800 billion more abroad than the world invests in Canada. That’s almost a trillion dollars that we’re pushing out of our country that is building factories and pipelines and mines in other places with paycheques for other people.”
He attributed this to red tape, giving the example of the difficulty in getting building permits in Canada compared to other members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
“We are the second-slowest place in the world to get a building permit. It takes on average—you take the average building permit time for everything from a house to a mine—it’s 250 days in Canada. In South Korea, it’s 28 days,” he said. “Only the Slovak Republic is slower than Canada in the entire OECD.”
‘Gatekeeping Policies’
High taxes and the cost of living are other impediments for foreign investors to come to Canada, Poilievre said.“We need to reform our tax system so that it rewards investment in our country,” he said.
“We need to get our workforce back. Our system punishes our young people for working with high taxes and clawbacks. We need to change it so that we reward work, so that there’s investment opportunities that build opportunity here in this country.”
Poilievre’s remarks were echoed by shadow finance minister Jasraj Singh Hallan, who also attended the press conference.
