National Bank CEO: radical tax cuts needed to revive productivity
National Bank of Canada chief executive Laurent Ferreira urged Prime Minister Mark Carney to pursue aggressive tax cuts and deregulation to help revive Canada’s lagging productivity. “We need to have lower taxes than the U.S. for businesses,” Ferreira said at the Canada Fintech Forum Sept. 22, adding the government should even consider a “zero tax policy” for strategic manufacturing and defence procurement. Ferreira warned that “productivity growth has been weak for a decade,” and that “we need to wake up” and reduce regulatory burdens in key sectors. While praising recent federal efforts, Ferreira emphasized, “We need to be more competitive. We have a hard time attracting capital. We have a hard time keeping our businesses in Canada.”
