On the Front Lines

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Note to readers: This video session was transcribed using auto-transcribing software.  Questions or concerns with the transcription can be directed to [email protected] with “transcription” in the subject line.

Mary Rowe: This is the City Talk Podcast, brought to you in digital bits and bytes by the Canadian Urban Institute, or CUI. I’m Mary Roe. So Labor Day, that’s labor with a U incidentally, has come and gone for 2026, and I have one question: Have you had enough? And I’m not talking about summer heat or summer storms because most of us across Canada have sweltered enough.
Mary Rowe: No, I’m referring, of course, to what seems to be clearly an escalating trade war that’s been occupying most of the bandwidth across our daily media on main streets, boardrooms, and living rooms. As you already know, US tariffs and Canadian counter-tariffs will hit home to varying degrees on both sides of the border.
Mary Rowe: However, there’s one group of Canadians that stand to feel a particularly acute level of pain through this confrontation. I guarantee you know some of them because they’re in your neighborhood, and you likely visit them weekly, maybe even daily. Together, they also represent one of the country’s largest employers.
Mary Rowe: We at CUI also know them very well through our ongoing work on Canada’s main streets and downtowns. Yes, I’m talking about the independent business sector, also known as SMEs or small to medium enterprises, whose livelihoods are, for many, already in jeopardy, while Ottawa’s focus is geared primarily to securing big wins for large scale business sectors like oil and gas, critical minerals, lumber, and the auto sector to name a few.
Mary Rowe: But these SMEs do, however, have a key asset on their side, and he’s my guest today on this podcast. Dan Kelly is the CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Dan, you know better than anyone, did I cover the current situation as you see it?
Dan Kelly: I will say the other thing on top of all of the preamble that you set out is that this chapter of the trade war is the SME chapter of the trade war.
Dan Kelly: Mm-hmm. It is almost entirely focused on products that are either created by, sold by small and medium-sized companies on both sides of the border in Canada and the US. Mm-hmm. So this, you know, it, it was, it was no surprise to us that the, that the president selected this list of, I think it’s 18 single-spaced pages of products to subject to 50% tariffs because the view is…
Dan Kelly: The reason hockey sticks is on the exam- on the list is to try to create, uh, some heat from small companies on government to get a deal. Uh, so that is, that is the unique feature. And then Canada’s retaliatory tariffs as well, they are very much small business focused. There are 900 items, and those are the things that my members sell- Yeah
Dan Kelly: or, or, or rely on that they bring in from the United States. So yeah, this is, this is big. I mean, I, I wouldn’t… Uh, I am having a bit of PTSD from, from the pandemic here right now. I’m, I’m not gonna lie. There are days where it feels so, so much like, uh, what we went through, just the, the sudden nature of a shock, the, the gravity of the situation for a lot of c- small companies as well.
Dan Kelly: Uh, it isn’t quite as widespread because the direct effects are on a more limited group. Uh, the, the pandemic shut down probably two-thirds of my membership. This will affect, uh, probably… Well, I’ve got 20% of small businesses that export to the US, 50% of small businesses that import, and in each of those categories, about half of the exporters or importers are affected by this round of tariffs directly.
Dan Kelly: So it is, it’s a big group, but it’s not quite as big as it was during the pandemic.
Mary Rowe: Uh, and, and as we know, the… This is my own sort of mental health talking here, is that uh, part of it too is that y- you don’t know what’s coming. And I can hear people saying, “If we just knew what Canada was negotiating for or not.”
Mary Rowe: That’s it. But you can’t know. No, no. I mean, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a very precarious thing. Uh, and the thing that’s interesting though is people respond to these things so differently because other people just think it’s a joke. You know? That’s it. They, it, they just think, “Oh, well, there he goes again.” And, uh, I don’t know whether they’re familiar enough.
Mary Rowe: They may not have people in their lives that are trying to meet payrolls- That’s it … or trying to figure out- That’s it … what their supply chain looks like.
Dan Kelly: And it’s service businesses, it is retail, it is hospitality- Yeah … that is going to be affected by this too. I mean, good that the Ca- Canadian government did move on fish and seafood products.
Dan Kelly: Uh, that, that was a good decision be- But I think it’s like, “Well, wait a minute, we’ve got lots of fish in Canada, so no problem. Let’s tariff that because we can just buy Canadian fish, not US fish.” And then of course, that forgets, what about the fish processing plant that’s processing US fish in Canada?
Dan Kelly: You know, like there’s- Yeah … these integrated, uh, chains which are a good thing for Canada, uh, are right now being used as a weapon.
Mary Rowe: This is where I think the ambivalence is so hard to square.
Dan Kelly: Yes.
Mary Rowe: Because on the one hand- Everybody is receptive to more independence- You got it … more self-reliance, uh, not– less dependency on one major partner market.
Mary Rowe: But on the other side of it, we have our geography and- That’s it … the fact that… And there are so many parts of the country that not only have an economic geography, but they may have a domestic demography. They may have relatives that live across the border- Uh-huh. Absolutely … or they’ve married somebody who’s an American or, or vice versa.
Mary Rowe: So this integration over decades, decades, and decades, it’s hard to square that with the reality of our lives,
Dan Kelly: right? The, the example that I’m facing right now just on the ground that’s causing a lot of pressure on me and my– and, and I would say within my membership, Canadians with the elbows up, uh, view are understandably angry.
Dan Kelly: Mm-hmm. They want government to fight back. Mm-hmm. So if your tariff impact in your household is a fif- you know, a 50 cent increase on a jar of peanut butter- Mm-hmm … but for a member of mine, the tariff impact is their business is on the line. Yeah. That their whole family’s future and, and maybe they have three family members working in the business with them, they’re all gonna be basically almost entirely shut down because their product is primarily shipped to the United States.
Mary Rowe: Yeah.
Dan Kelly: You can understand why the view of retaliatory tariffs, for example, on the part of the person who has a tiny impact and the person who is, their company’s on the line-
Mary Rowe: Mm-hmm …
Dan Kelly: may be very different. And I guess that’s the part that I’m trying to get across to Canadians. We’re not opposed to retaliatory tariffs.
Dan Kelly: In fact, small businesses are, are generally supportive of counter-tariffs. It’s the fact that the, the burden of that is gonna rest very heavily. There are gonna be people on the front lines of this trade war and people that are just cheerleading from behind. And I would ask people, Canadians, to give some thought for those Canadians who, through no choice of their own, are on the front lines.
Dan Kelly: And, and this is, in that respect, like a war.
Mary Rowe: Mm-hmm. It’s so sobering when you put it that way.
Dan Kelly: Yeah.
Mary Rowe: And I think that, uh, my comment, and I’m a dual citizen, and I think that my comment, I feel like I can get away with saying this a bit more because I’m an American as well. But- Mm … I think that America is just so much larger and so many, uh, they’re, they’re more accustomed at the local level to be at odds with what’s happening nationally.
Mary Rowe: Yeah. They’ve survived, uh, foreign policy periods where they’re at odds. Yeah. They’ve survived economic periods where they’re at odds, and so they have a maybe a higher degree of tolerance for it, where we’re here- Yeah … smaller and, and maybe a different kind of set of values that it’s makes us very uncomfortable to have this, at least I think lots of Canadians- Yeah
Mary Rowe: very uncomfortable to have to hear this constant, uh, as you suggest, even warlike language. Yeah. Yeah. It’s just not- No … I mean, do you feel good about it? I don’t feel good even hearing it.
Dan Kelly: No, no, no. It, at the same time, I, I do feel like I need to, um, you know, I, I was, I was thinking about this. I was just on the phone with the minister.
Mary Rowe: Mm-hmm.
Dan Kelly: And I found myself almost apologizing for using- Mm-hmm … uh, controversial language, uh, uh, with her. Like, I, I’ve referred to the government support programs as garbage, uh, publicly. And- Well,
Mary Rowe: actually, but I was… Keep going ’cause I wanna ask you about what- Sure … what kind of support we should be working towards.
Mary Rowe: Right. Yeah.
Dan Kelly: Uh, and, and of course, that got a reaction in Ottawa, and, uh, more than a few people have said, “Dan, you know, if you’re trying to get the government to act on this, don’t use words like that. It just, uh- Yeah … hurts the heart.” And I said- Okay. I’m on the phone every day talking to people-
Mary Rowe: Mm-hmm …
Dan Kelly: whose entire livelihoods are on the line right now.
Dan Kelly: Mm-hmm. Uh, and, and look, nobody’s blaming the government of Canada for starting this fight. That’s not… I don’t hear that at all. But nevertheless, they are in full panic mode about this and worried about where this is going next, to your point.
Mary Rowe: Mm-hmm.
Dan Kelly: And, and so I gotta reflect that in my public comments ’cause they count on me to, to, to be able to say those kinds of things in the media.
Dan Kelly: And also my experience during the pandemic is if I didn’t scream and yell at the very start of this and, and extract a bit of a political price for inaction, that the words were not matching up to the actions, if I hadn’t done that, I don’t believe that we would have got as, uh, there as quickly in providing proper support.
Dan Kelly: So, you know, it, uh, I, I’ve had to excuse myself for and give- Yeah … myself permission to show a bit of anger on aspects of this, not about the trade war, but about the pretty pathetic first rounds of supports that are available to small firms despite the promises to have the backs of small business owners.
Mary Rowe: I, uh, uh, stole it from Michelle Obama, but y- a, a little slight modification that when things go low- … we go, we go local. Because I think at a time when you just feel so much is swirling around over which you have no control, you know- That’s right … you feel it’s, you feel helpless or even worse, hopeless.
Mary Rowe: That where you can have some control is in your immediate vicinity, just as we did- That’s it … during COVID. That’s it. And we know that people started being very, uh, focused on situations they could actually see that were- That’s it … out their front door, which is yours and my constituency. You can choose how you spend your money.
Mary Rowe: That’s it. You can choose how you invest your money. You can choose how you spend your time. And I think now what we need to do is recruit people to- Choose how they, hmm, express their resistance, let’s say. That’s it. Because that, I think that’s one of the dilemmas with the tariff, counter tariff, is it starts to get sort of silly, and you think, as you’re suggesting, which I’m appreciative you say this, this, you can tit for tat all you like- Yeah
Mary Rowe: but it does have real implications for the- Yeah … SME sector. So let’s talk a little bit about how do we encourage folks to sort of, uh- Yeah … adjust.
Dan Kelly: Yeah. And, and it is, you know, on the one hand you would think, well, buy Canadian, buy local, uh, should be fairly straightforward. But you do have to be thoughtful about this to, to, to your point.
Dan Kelly: Totally. And- I get, I get enraged when I see somebody walking out of Costco, uh, in a, in a media clip showing, “Look, I bought a box of Canadian-made crackers” and I’m like- Oh, no … “Okay, you did, you did half of it, but why are you buying it
Mary Rowe: at the Costco?” Why are you at the Costco? So anyway. Even though Co- even though Costco’s an interesting model, it’s, it’s not the worst of the, of the bigger box ones.
Mary Rowe: Sure. But, you know.
Dan Kelly: But I would say, look, my advice generally to Canadians is if you buy from a local independent, you, you’re doing pretty well. Like that, that to me, whether the product is made in Italy, the US, or in Canada. Mm-hmm. Uh, obviously if then you go in and, and, and prefer a Canadian-made product in a Canadian-based independent retailer, that’s the- Yeah
Dan Kelly: you know, that’s the holy tr- trinity of, uh, of, of, of local effects. But I, I would say just, you know, try to be thoughtful about this because there’s a lot of small companies that actually, like their product is importing something from the US and that’s what they’ve been doing for 25 years, and so it’s gonna take ’em a bit, uh, to be able to switch gears i- immediately, and we don’t want them to go out of business either ’cause eventually we’re gonna get a trade deal.
Dan Kelly: Yeah. I’ve talked to a honey producer in Manitoba. 53-year customer of his in the US buys all his, buy almost all of his honey. honey’s on the tariff list to go into the US, so he’s now, his honey is now 50% more expensive.
Mary Rowe: Mm-hmm.
Dan Kelly: And he says, “Look, I know what’s gonna happen if I lose this relationship. I’m trying to discount as much as I can, ’cause if I lose this relationship with my US customer, they’re not coming back to me afterwards.”
Mary Rowe: Right.
Dan Kelly: These are the kind of nuanced discussions that we need to think about when we’re, we’re doing elbows up because we don’t wanna sever these relationships altogether. Reducing dependency, absolutely. There… I have strong evidence, by the way, a third of small businesses have tr- started to purchase more or, uh, find customers in other parts of Canada.
Dan Kelly: Mm-hmm. That’s a fantastic thing.
Mary Rowe: Are there other things, other policies that you could see us- Yeah … introducing and, and that, and that is, are good things to do regardless of what’s prompting it? So one of them is-
Dan Kelly: Sure …
Mary Rowe: get those interprovincial trade barriers to be dropped.
Dan Kelly: Yes. But more work has happened on this than, you know, I’ve, as, as, uh, as you can tell, I’ve been around for a few years now.
Dan Kelly: 32, 32 years in public policy. Right. More work has been done this year, in the last year, than has been done in the entire 32 years prior to that. So I, I’m happy with, uh, with the trajectory there. Uh, it won’t shock you to hear from my organization that, uh, the other thing that we need is some, some positive messaging.
Dan Kelly: Uh, uh, the point that you made at the beginning, uh, is a very, uh, profound one. The government has been focused, the federal government, when the Carney government crowd took o- took office, they’ve been very focused on major projects and big business and international trade. Those have been kind of- Mm-hmm
Dan Kelly: the three big economic files. All very good and important economic files, no criticism there.
RAYE: Mm-hmm.
Dan Kelly: There has been almost no look at what’s happening with entrepreneurship, small business, j- Mm-hmm … uh, business creation. Mm-hmm. And Mary, this is the sobering news. This is not just a trade story. We have had now six quarters in the last two years where there have been more business closures than business openings.
Dan Kelly: That almost never happens even in recessions, that we have, we have a couple of those quarters, but we don’t have as many as we have had. Demographics are a part of this. This isn’t all, I’m not laying all of this at the feet of government.
RAYE: Mm-hmm.
Dan Kelly: Uh, and I’m hoping that that will start to be, now that we’ve got some of these major projects going, a greater focus for the, the next bit of, uh, of, of Prime Minister’s mandate.
Dan Kelly: Um, I’m, I’m worried about that, but that’s a big deal.
Mary Rowe: You know, when you talk about business closure, I’m glad that you’re raising that statistic, and we’ll get it and we’ll put it in the notes for the, uh, for the broadcast. But, um, part of that is also a challenge around succession.
Dan Kelly: That’s
Mary Rowe: it. That, as you say, when you say demographics.
Mary Rowe: So a per- a, a family or a person’s run a business for a long period of time, they wanna, they wanna pass it on- Yeah … and they can’t find a buyer, or the buyer can’t find financing to be able to- That’s it … purchase it. Uh-huh. So I think this is another… I mean, as we know, with, with these kinds of crises, just as we saw with COVID and pandemic, they exacerbate or accelerate stuff that- That’s it
Mary Rowe: that were challenges that existed before, and then suddenly, wham, you realize we’ve got to deal with succession planning. Uh, and so I think as we come out of these things, and I hope you’re right that we will, uh, uh, come out and we’ll look back and say, “Wow, hey, we need new vehicles-
Dan Kelly: Yeah …
Mary Rowe: to provide capital- That’s it
Mary Rowe: to young entrepreneurs- That’s it … who can then buy Jill or Joe’s business.” So that’s part of that. And I s- as, as you said, I hope too that the government will be able to, once it gets… You know, this, there’s this huge investment conference happening. Yes. Uh, with… It’s fascinating to me all the folks that are coming.
Mary Rowe: But they are looking for large, hard infrastructure- That’s it … high, a high ROI. Um, uh, I’d heard initially the deal minimum was a billion. I think that’s been reduced slightly, but- You and I know that there are gazillions of opportunities below $100 million- That’s right … and in communities of every size.
Mary Rowe: Businesses- Yeah … uh, social enterprises, uh, infrastructure projects that exist in communities, and they’re much smaller. So the dilemma for you and I is what are the mechanisms to get resources in at that size, that increment? Yeah. How do we make the money smaller? What, what are your, what’s your, what are your members saying- Yeah
Mary Rowe: about that? How, how do they deal with the fact that they’re under-capitalized?
Dan Kelly: We just, uh, just put a, a new slide in front of a couple ministers on that very question. And- Oh, great … one of the things… Actually, it’s a conservative push that they’ve, uh, they’ve championed and, and I think they’re right. It is, uh, to allow rollover of capital gains.
Dan Kelly: So if you have- Yeah … a business, uh, and you’re looking to sell, you can not get hit by the, uh, capital gains effect if you roll it over into another Canadian independent business. Oh, that’s great. ‘Cause there’s a lot, and, and there’s a lot of, there are a lot of businesses that have done pretty well, and I’m happy for that.
Dan Kelly: Uh, but if we can get that money back into more independent businesses, supporting a young entrepreneur or the next generation, uh, I think that that’s a really wise proposal, and I do, uh, it’s one of the things that we’re pushing for, uh, as an outcome here. The other one that, of course, um, uh, uh, I, my, my team says I talk about too much, but it is immigration policy.
Dan Kelly: Mm-hmm. And I do worry that we’ve turned down the dial of immigration- Mm-hmm … uh, to such a degree that, look, I mean, you and I both know, it’s often new immigrants to Canada that come with some money these days, and they’re investing it in a business. And if we say, “Sorry, uh, we’re gonna have fewer of you in, in the country right now,”- Mm-hmm
Dan Kelly: well, those are fewer businesses that are gonna make a successful transition. And if we lose that- If these businesses basically instead of finding a buyer wrap up, uh, God help the employees in these independent businesses and small communities right across Canada. I really worry about that a lot.
Mary Rowe: Mm-hmm.
Mary Rowe: I’ve been thinking, as I say, about the focus that’s being placed on this investment conference, and they’re putting a deal book together with these high, high increment deals. And my, uh… You and I can team up on this, uh, Dan. My, uh, idea is that we need an alternate deal book that talks about all the other opportunities that are of more modest increments to be able to invest- Yeah
Mary Rowe: in found, and found businesses across the country because communities are organized around the economy of business. Yes. That’s how a community forms, you know. Absolutely right. It’s not just people hanging around. It’s people actually having some kind of inter- economic interaction with one another. Okay.
Mary Rowe: Well, listen, as we finish, um, between now and the end of the year, what are you hoping to see? And, and I wanna go back to if the government weren’t doing garbage, in addition to- In addition to the capital gains rollover-
Dan Kelly: Yeah …
Mary Rowe: any other-
Dan Kelly: Yes …
Mary Rowe: particular initiatives you’d like to see- Yeah … the government be taking?
Dan Kelly: So the three that I’ve put forward right now, two of them to respond to the emergency, one kind of a la- a larger picture thing. Uh, one is I’ve suggested that we, instead of trying to fix the RDA programs, the Regional Development Agency programs, that we create a program that would help small business.
Dan Kelly: You get a refund of a portion of the tariff you actually paid either, in either direction- Mm-hmm … uh, up to, say, 50,000 U.S., 70,000 Canadian. That, that’s, that’s policy one that we’re s- for the emergency for those directly hit. We’re asking for some immediate tariff relief. These guys need cash just- Mm-hmm … to keep the lights on.
Dan Kelly: Yeah. Secondly, we’re asking government to fix the stupid tariff permissions process. If your product is unique but is on the list of those tariffs, and you, there’s no displacement option for you, you should be able to get that off. Right now we’re having cases heard a year later in the middle of a trade war-
Mary Rowe: Yeah
Dan Kelly: uh, for the tariff permissions process. I, I… My joke has been to Minister Champagne that I think that there’s two bureaucrats in the Department of Finance and a box of pencils- … as the entire team to try to fix this, uh, this, this, uh, this agency. I want a small business desk within that agency.
Mary Rowe: Mm-hmm.
Dan Kelly: The third that I would say is it, we need to help the broader effect of tariffs and to send a positive message to entrepreneurs.
Dan Kelly: Again, won’t shock you to hear we’re looking for a, a three-point reduction in the small business corporate tax rate. Mm-hmm. Asking it for, to, to drop from s- from nine to six. And I’m asking them to do that retroactive to Jan 1, 2026. We’re getting lots of signals from government that this next budget may be more small business focused in the fall.
Dan Kelly: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I’m saying we don’t have to wait for the budget. Announce something now to send that message to entrepreneurs, like, “Stick with this, guys.” ‘Cause there’s a lot of people, you, you said it at the beginning, that are wondering, “What’s next? Do I have the…” Yeah. Like, “I haven’t had a normal month of sales in six years since the pandemic.”
Dan Kelly: Yeah. “Have I got the firepower to stick around, uh, for, through another incredibly turbulent period?” They need some glimmer of light at the end of this.
Mary Rowe: You know, I did a back of the envelope, uh, calculation, which in, in modern times means I asked AI. It’s true. Uh, uh, I asked, “What is the total COVID-related debt-
Dan Kelly: Yes
Mary Rowe: that SMEs are carrying?” And it’s about 45 billion according to the envelope. Wow. And, but what’s interesting, Dan, is if the government of Canada could create a vehicle to defer the payment of that debt, I’m not saying wipe it, although of course- Yeah … that would be good to have a jubilee year for the debt, but, uh, wipe, just defer it for 10 years.
Mary Rowe: Take that 45 billion so that those businesses can reinvest in their business- Yeah … which as you know they would, and be able to get them out of con- the, the rabbit wheel of carrying that debt, that the payoff would be probably 2.5, 3 times what that 45 billion is, and that is a balance sheet correction that the federal government could do- Yeah
Mary Rowe: is to defer the COVID debt- Interesting … which most banks have now. But just create a mechanism so that you could get that off your books, get some breathing room. So, and, uh, the other thing is, I just wanna push back quickly on, not with you, but just with the world, that this idea that small is somehow, uh, diminutive and- Ah, yeah
Mary Rowe: and less than. You know, you and I are in the business of saying that the independent business sector is critical to communities, and it is the underpinning of our larger economy.
Dan Kelly: 100%.
Mary Rowe: And so to just continue to remind people that there are no large deals without investments in places and small businesses and independent businesses operating at the local level.
Mary Rowe: That’s how we actually- Better
Dan Kelly: than I could.
Mary Rowe: Well, no, no. It’s just how our life makes our life work. And so I think back to at a time when you feel so much is out of your control, and it’s hard to not feel despairing about this, to be reminded that we are so fortunate that we live in places where there are people making livings and creating products and services that you and I can consume locally in exchange with one another.
Dan Kelly: I, I’ve, I’ve tried not to be critical of the Carney government- Mm-hmm … for the breakdown in the discussions- Mm-hmm … nor for putting retaliatory tariffs. That’s what Canadians, I think, want, uh, right now. Mm-hmm,
Mary Rowe: mm-hmm.
Dan Kelly: Uh, but it’s not without really high risks and, and with disproportionate burdens falling on some.
Mary Rowe: You know, dumb question from a non-trade- Mm-hmm … non-economist person, but-
Dan Kelly: Sure …
Mary Rowe: is there no other way that we could be fighting here?
Dan Kelly: There are. There are, you know, bans of products from the US. There are export tariffs that you’ve heard, uh, Doug Ford, uh, suggest that we say, “Okay, potash, we’re gonna charge a tariff of 10% before we ship it to the US.”
Dan Kelly: Uh, it’s just that, you know, do we want to go down that road? And I, I’m very sympathetic to the, the point that we have to worry about our reputation around the world. Carney’s onto something when he, when he’s trying to make the world know- Mm-hmm … you can rely on Canada. Mm-hmm. We’re not gonna do these erratic, uh, policies- Right
Dan Kelly: hither and yon. And, and that’s, a- and, and so We, we have to be careful about the long-term brand effect on the country if we were to engage too heavily. It… Un- unfortunately, though, it has meant that it is my members that are going, that are on the front line. And I agree wildly with your last point. If every small business in Canada, there’s 1.1 million small companies that have at least one staff person.
Mary Rowe: Mm-hmm.
Dan Kelly: If we had a, if we were able to get every business to grow by every one of the 1.1 million to hire one person-Mm-hmm … think of the number of jobs relative when we’re, when we’re looking at that against an auto subsidy that’s going to create or save X number of, you know, 5,000 jobs here or there.
Dan Kelly: Mm-hmm. And again, I’m not unsympathetic to the, to- Mm-hmm … to those industries. It’s just that the scale of things for small businesses, they, they’re often viewed as, “Well, we don’t need to worry about them too much.” And I have heard from more than a few that they do feel like the cannon fodder in the trade war.
Dan Kelly: Like they feel-
Mary Rowe: Yeah. What I like about your one plus one idea is just- Yeah … that we grow with what we have. That’s it. And so to me, that’s a very powerful message that we can finish on. Yeah. Is that we need to be focused on investing in the assets we’ve got and growing what we have. We have this fabulous network of SMEs across the country, and how do we grow what we have?
Mary Rowe: That’s it. How do we invest in those, in those businesses to hire a new worker, to have more- That’s right … inventory that may be Canadian sourced? So on that note, let’s leave with how do we actually, you know, the, the, the government of Canada has a program called Build, uh, Community Strong. Mm-hmm. And I think we now need to add build economies, plural, strong.
Mary Rowe: Build Economies Strong. So on that note, I’m gonna leave you, Dan. Thank you for joining us- Awesome … at City Talk. And w- this isn’t the end of the conversation, as you and I know. We will talk again.
Dan Kelly: Looking forward to it, Mary.
Mary Rowe: So here’s another reminder, because it does make a difference. However much money you’re able to spend these days, do your due diligence and when and where you can, spend it on Canadian-made products and services at retailers owned, operated in your neighbourhood.
Mary Rowe: That’s neighbourhood with a U. Dan Kelly at the CFIB and all his members will thank you. As we mentioned, the federal government’s Canada Investment Summit is being held in Toronto on September 14 and 15 with a goal to convince global investors to part with billions, also with a capital B, and invest in some of our key infrastructure and major projects.
Mary Rowe: But as Dan and I touched on, there’s a whole other economy, maybe we could call it our ground game, of independent businesses along our main streets, in our neighbourhoods, in places large and small across Canada. How can we find appropriately sized investments for those enterprises? Join us on the next episode of City Talk, the podcast, to hear what Sean Speer, a fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and editor at large of the Hub Media Centre.
Mary Rowe: He’s sure to have a comment or two on reaching the other or even the real economy. Speaking of which, we’d appreciate any comments you may have on this podcast on anything else you’d like the CUI podcast team to hear about. Drop us a line at [email protected]. That’s City Talk, all one word, at C-A-N-U-R-B.O-R-G.
Mary Rowe: I’m Mary Roe. Thanks for listening.