Local entrepreneur advises cautious optimism with federal economic agenda in face of U.S. trade

A new poll finds that Canadian businesses are feeling optimistic about the federal government’s economic agenda.

But one local entrepreneur isn’t as confident, saying the next two-and-a-half years will continue to be a struggle while U.S. President Donald Trump is in power.

A survey from Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG), which polled 359 business leaders online, found 51 per cent said their firm will be better off as a result of the federal government’s economic measures over the next three years.

However, their optimism is tempered by a desire for faster policy execution.

“Canadian businesses are cautiously optimistic,” said Lachlan Wolfers, the Global Head of Indirect Taxes for KPMG. “I think they’re looking beyond the immediate tariff turmoil that we’ve experienced for the last 18 months or so, and are now looking more to longer term measures.”

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Half of the businesses surveyed want the federal government to prioritize removing red tape.

“It’s very difficult to do business in Canada,” said Ron Foxcroft, the owner of Fox 40 and Fluke Transportation. “We’re paying 54 per cent tax, there’s an awful lot of red tape, and right now, since January 2025, there’s chaos and uncertainty and tariffs.”

Foxcroft says Canadian businesses have to adjust their future plans almost daily, because of U.S. President Donald Trump.

“We used to have a five-year plan — now we have a five-hour plan, because the administration in the United States right now could wake up at three in the morning and change the rules,” said Foxcroft.

The survey was taken before the U.S. threatened to implement 50 percent tariffs on a wide-range of Canadian goods beginning Aug. 19, but it still gives insight into how business leaders are thinking about the trade volatility.

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The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses looks at smaller operations than what the survey included, but it says the numbers align with what they’re seeing as well.

“You can reach a trade deal with the United States, and then the circumstances under which that deal was reached will be renegotiated for some obscure reason — some time in the future, and I think people see that,” said Wolfers.

Around 70 per cent of respondents want Canada to be a tough negotiator in the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade talks, but even then Foxcroft worries about Trump.

“Any deal that’s made with this administration isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” said Foxcroft. “So I’m looking for rough times in the next two and a half years.”

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