May 7, 2018
Feds ‘desperately worried’ over optics of being too close to business: John Risley
Another prominent business leader is sounding the alarm on Canadian competitiveness by taking aim at the government’s attitude toward business in this country.
“We have a government that is desperately worried about optics around being too close to business,” said John Risley, president of CFFI Ventures and founder of Clearwater Fine Foods, in an interview with BNN Bloomberg Friday.
“This government has sort of looked on business as the enemy, as it moves further to the left – and we’re not the enemy. We’re the friend of government, and we want to be treated like a friend.”
The comments come amid a growing chorus of business leaders raising concern about Canada’s ability to compete.
“I think what you’re hearing, and you’re not perhaps hearing it in such succinct terms, is the dismay, if you like, amongst the business community that the government is not engaged with us in a manner that we would like them to be engaged,” Risley said.
“And that doesn’t mean that they have to follow our direction or our advice. It means that they have to listen, and our frustration has been that the government has not be listening, frankly, to the business community.”
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Finance Minister Bill Morneau told BNN Bloomberg’s Amanda Lang on Friday he “constantly” goes back to the business community and listens to what they have to say.
He also refused to buy the argument Canada isn’t competitive, but in the interview acknowledged that the country is facing uncertainty with NAFTA negotiations still ongoing and the possibility that the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project won’t be built.
“But what I won’t do is accept the frame that we’re not competitive,” he said.
However, a BNNBloomberg.ca poll conducted the same day found 38 per cent of respondents said the overall tone from the federal government is to blame for Canada’s eroding competitiveness.
“The government needs to do a better job of listening,” Risley said. “The government needs to understand that business is its friend, not its enemy. And we’re only here to do one thing: make the government look good.”
