​The cost and maintenance of cybersecurity measures is prohibitive to small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) across all sectors of the Canadian economy.
 
There are a few very simple things that can be done to minimize the risk and enhance recovery procedures. Many SMEs lack the detailed knowledge to make informed decisions and the financial support to contract professionals to handle it for them.
 
We at the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce have put together a policy resolution on this topic with input from our fellow chambers and industry experts. This policy resolution will go to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce (CCC) and be discussed at our annual policy debate in October. If approved by the membership, it will become part of the CCC’s advocacy program for the next three years.
 
The issue of cybersecurity is even more relevant today as bad actors begin to use Artificial Intelligence to produce even more invasive ways to trap their victims.
 
The internet is the road on which the majority of business is conducted in the 21st century and
while business is responsible for its own portion of that road, help is needed to make sure it is
maintained. Many businesses still feel cybersecurity is an optional extra, yet it is just as important as locks on our doors. Protecting digital assets requires at least a basic cybersecurity strategy and should be part of the business strategy for all SMEs.
 
The Canadian economy is comprised primarily of SMEs. By incentivizing the adoption of cybersecurity solutions, the federal government can ensure that small and medium-sized businesses are not only protected, but can recover quickly and effectively if attacked.
 
As of December 2021, there were 1.21 million employer businesses in Canada. Of these, 1.19 million (97.9%) were small businesses and 22,700 (1.9%) were medium-sized businesses. Small businesses employed 8.2 million individuals in Canada, or 67.7% of the total private labour force, with medium businesses employing another 2.5 million people. Together, SMEs represent about 51% of Canada’s GDP.
 
According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada:
• 40% of small business owners are spending at least $100,000 to resolve a cyberattack
• 1 in 5 small businesses have been affected by a cyberattack or data breach
 
Cyber risk insurance is also a contributor to a business’ ability to survive a cyber incident. However, many SMEs lack the minimum requirements to qualify for cyber risk insurance and are not able to implement needed protocols due to the financial burden.  
 
According to an annual report from IBM, the average data breach cost about $5.5 million globally in 2022, up from $3.92 million in 2019. Canada is ranked the third highest for cost per data breach with an average of $7 million, up from $4.44 million in 2019. In a 2023 study conducted by MasterCard, cybercrime has increased by 600% since the pandemic.
 
It is clear the need for SMEs to protect themselves is important to the Canadian economy. In November 2018, the CRA implemented the Accelerated Investment Incentive proposals which, under Chart 3 Purchase of Equipment, allow a business to deduct up to $4,400 in the first two years after the purchase. While this was welcomed, under the current economic situation it is not enough.
 
Ideally, SMEs need support from professional cybersecurity businesses. This should come through an initial assessment, typically around $100 per system user. Additionally, grants, tax rebates, and tax deductions will support investments in training, support from third-party experts, and getting up-to-date software.
 
Furthermore, as businesses recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canada Business Resilience Network (www.cbrn.ca) Roadmap to Recovery document suggests government introduce programs, funding and incentives for technology adoption in businesses of all sizes and across all sectors to improve Canadian productivity.
 
Our recommendations are that the Government of Canada:
1. Broaden the scope of the existing Canadian Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) or create a similar grant program focused on cybersecurity which will allow SMEs to access comprehensive cybersecurity products and services;
2. Provide specific annual tax credits for the ongoing support and maintenance required from Third Party vendors for SMEs that have satisfied the grant program to assess their technology;
3. Allow SMEs to write off 100% of their business investments in preventative cybersecurity-related software, equipment and other costs (support services and outsourcing costs) in the year those investments are made;
4. Provide a subsidy for training of staff on cybersecurity awareness programs; and
5. Create a SME Cyber Defence Fund that provides SMEs with the necessary support to improve their cyber resilience and close the cybersecurity investment gap.

We talk a lot about regulatory burden here at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce because it is consistently one of the biggest barriers to economic growth that we see across sectors.
 
So, what *IS* it exactly?
 
In a Nutshell
 
“Regulations” are the government rules that legally dictate what businesses are allowed to do when it comes to producing, manufacturing and selling their goods and services.
 
The OECD lists three general types:
• Economic regulation is meant to improve the efficiency of delivering goods and services to markets and customers. It can include government-imposed restrictions on things like prices, quantity, service and imports and exports.
• Social regulation is meant to protect the well-being and rights of society. It can include protection of the environment, health and safety in the workplace, workers’ rights, and consumer protections against things like fraud.
• Administrative regulation relates to general government management of the operation of the public and private sectors. It can include regulations relating to taxes, business operations, distribution systems, health care administration and intellectual property rights.
 
THE POLICY PROBLEM
 
Well-designed and well-implemented regulations can be one of the government’s tools to grow the economy and help keep Canadian citizens and our environment safe.
 
Unfortunately, Canada has a complex network of overlapping regulations from all levels of government that make a lot of things more expensive and difficult than they need to be for businesses.
 
Complying with all these layers of regulations is also time-consuming, and combined with inefficient and unpredictable regulatory processes, Canadian businesses are not set up for success. Every hour and every dollar spent dealing with redundant paperwork and confusing compliance issues is an hour or dollar not spent on running and growing a business. This is especially true for small businesses, which often lack the specialized staff and financial resources of larger companies to deal with regulation and compliance.
 
Let’s look at a few examples of how regulatory burdens can impact the economy:
 
Transportation
The approval process for trade-enabling transportation infrastructure projects can take upwards of 10 years due to inefficient regulatory processes. By stalling on the approvals that would put shovels in the ground on projects like twinning railways, increasing bridge capacity and modernizing shipping ports, Canada and Canadian businesses lose out on billions in annual revenue. We need to be able to get things like food, fuel, fertilizer and critical minerals to domestic manufacturers, ports and international markets. If we can’t move Canadian goods, we can’t sell them, and that’s bad news for everyone.
 
Interprovincial Trade
Nearly 25% of businesses who trade interprovincially cite red tape as a major obstacle to doing business within Canada. Over decades of regulation making, provinces and territories have introduced differing rules and standards that impact nearly every sector. They affect areas like trucking and transportation standards, food packaging and labelling standards, professional certifications and securities regulation. As a result, businesses have to deal with different sets of rules and processes in each province, and for many, this causes serious barriers to business or opting out of interprovincial trade all together – this  reduces Canada’s GDP by billions of dollars every year.
 
Net-zero
A predictable, consistent regulatory framework is crucial for Canada to hit its net-zero targets. Key words – “predictable” and “consistent.” The transition to net-zero can’t happen overnight and businesses need time to prepare, make the necessary investments and gradually adjust their operations. Unfortunately, Canada’s convoluted, shifting goal posts and regulations make long-term business planning extremely challenging. This uncertainty also impacts our ability to attract the kinds of global investments we need for our natural resources sector to help develop clean fuels like natural gas, hydrogen and sustainable biofuels. We need to convince investors that Canada is a safe bet – the uncertainty around net-zero regulations is doing anything but.
 
Talent & the Workforce
In a global economy, regulatory burdens are especially problematic. The more red tape a business runs into in any given country, the less likely they are to stay– they can take their business and job opportunities elsewhere. And where the opportunities go, so too does the talent. Canada is at risk of losing not just businesses, but the next generation of talented and innovative workers to other countries.
 
Canada and the United States
The United States is our primary ally and trading partner – a huge amount of goods come and go across the border every day – which makes regulatory differences between the two countries especially problematic. Different rules or processes create unnecessary supply-chain slow-downs and add costs for exporting companies. We also compete with the United States for investment. We want companies to open headquarters here, create jobs for Canadians and contribute to our economy – but when they can do that at a cheaper price tag and with less of a headache south of the border due to more business-friendly regulations, all Canadians lose.
 
POLICY SOLUTION
Considering Canada’s alarmingly low level of economic growth – our GDP is projected to grow by only 1.4% this year and 1.3% in 2024 – we literally can’t afford the regulatory burdens facing Canadian businesses. The solution?
 
Regulatory reform (aka regulatory modernization).
 
A modern, streamlined regulatory process is a thing of beauty, removing barriers and allowing businesses to stay competitive and maximize their growth while protecting the welfare of Canadian citizens. This looks like improved environmental, social and economic protections, while simultaneously increasing investment growth and the number of jobs for Canadians – win-win!
 
We can’t just talk the talk when it comes to regulatory reform – we need to see real action that will move the needle.
 
WHAT’S NEXT?
Concerned about regulatory burdens and want to know how your business can act? Here are a few ways to get involved:
• Write or request a meeting with your federal MP(s) or provincial/territorial government representative to voice your concerns if your business is being impacted by regulatory burdens.
• Consider joining your local chamber of commerce or board of trade. By joining, you can add your voice to the development of policy and advocacy positions that drive business success.
 
 
Read the full column from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce here.
​

Housing starts are an indicator of growth and prosperity in a community. A housing start is a foundation poured at the beginning of the construction period. Starts are measured per dwelling unit, so a 3-floor apartment building with 12 units would be recorded as 12 starts and a single-family home is 1 start. A house or apartment building could take 6 to 18 months to build. Once it is move-in ready, it is recorded as a New Home Completion.
 
Starts were low in 2022, with only 198 starts in the City of Peterborough and 155 starts in the County of Peterborough. However, from January to June 2023, the City and County of Peterborough had 70 starts. This number is alarmingly low for our population of over 130,000. Furthermore, the Ontario Provincial government has set a target of 9,300 new homes to be built from 2021-2031 in the City & County of Peterborough. So far, there have been 423 of those homes built.
 
While these numbers are cyclical and the causal factors behind what makes starts in any one year, or series of years, higher or lower is complex and multi-faceted, PKHBA sees two key factors responsible for the unusually low starts.
 
The first is economic circumstances. These include the current high interest rates and subsequently low affordability, as well as a poor economic outlook, which are influencing buyers’ behaviours and developers' decisions about future projects.
 
The second, is extremely prolonged delays within the development approval process portion of a housing project’s life span.
 
In regards to the macro-economic environment, Canada has just undergone an unprecedented interest rate hiking cycle which saw the cost of borrowing money go from nearly 1%, all the way up to around 6%. This has had a massive effect on not only new home buyers’ purchasing power, but also the sentiment for the economic forecast.
 
Such an environment bakes a mentality of uncertainty into the market, where buyers are scared to purchase a home not only because they are uncertain what their monthly cost of ownership will be on a go-forward basis, but also for fear that prices may see a further decline.
Subsequently, developers lose confidence in starting new projects. Whether such projects are as small as a single speculative residential home, or a 30+ unit condo development, not only are their costs of completing and holding this project uncertain, but also the timeline they may have to hold it for, and the price they may ultimately receive for the product are uncertain as the pricing trend over the last 12 months has been negative.
 
In concert, there is a situation where buyers are hesitant to buy, and builders can become hesitant to build.
 
And yet, most other mid-sized cities in the province are subjected to the same economic circumstances, and are outperforming Peterborough in terms of new housing starts by a great margin.
 
Comparing the City & County of Peterborough (CMA) to neighbouring communities of similar size, the housing starts are low. The City of Kawartha Lakes outperformed Peterborough in 2022 with 563 starts compared to Peterborough CMA’s 353 starts. In 2023 Kawartha Lakes continues this strong trend with 312 starts in the first half of the year compared to Peterborough CMA’s 70.
 
More examples would be from Belleville which has a population of just over 110,000 and had 192 starts so far in 2023, Kingston has a population of 172,500 and had 318 starts, and Guelph has a population of 165,500 and had 774 starts so far in 2023.
 
Why are these other cities building while the Peterborough area is not?
 
We believe the answer lies in the compounding effect of many years of development application review and approval delays. Builders have little incentive to lower their prices in our current environment to sell off product on their remaining available lots; not only because there is little competition forcing them to do so, but also because they will have nowhere to go next, no next development to put their construction machine to work on.
 
Additionally, the unnecessarily lengthy and complicated process of getting approvals for large development projects has reduced competitiveness in our area, as developers and builders opt to focus their efforts elsewhere. The City of Kawartha Lakes has seen many new developers begin large projects over the past few years, resulting in increased housing starts in 2022 & 2023. Kawartha Lakes council made economic development a priority in 2016 as part of its new Strategic Plan.
 
These low housing start numbers in Peterborough all lead to lower numbers of housing units available, feeding the housing crisis and housing affordability crisis.
 
However, PKHBA feels a strong resolve in working towards solving these issues because as the statistics make clear, the need for change is urgent.
 
 
https://institute.smartprosperity.ca/sites/default/files/Ontario%27s%20Need%20for%201.5m%20More%20Homes-SPI%20August%202022.pdf
https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/hmip-pimh/#TableMapChart/3515023/4/Douro-Dummer%20(TP)

​Every province and territory in Canada is struggling to find enough healthcare professionals, adding strain on already overburdened systems.
 
This is impacting access to effective and efficient healthcare, limiting labour mobility and increasing lost time and productivity across all sectors. As we struggle to train enough workers domestically, barriers to labour mobility in the healthcare sector are keeping skilled workers away. The fragmented and archaic foreign credential recognition processes across the country are leaving qualified newcomers working in areas outside of their expertise. We need a national strategy regarding accreditation barriers in the healthcare sector that addresses interprovincial and international qualifications.
 
The Peterborough and the Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce and Fredericton Chamber of Commerce have teamed up on a policy resolution submitted to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce (CCC) at the October convention, urging the federal government to take action on this issue. Policy resolutions are one way for Chambers to work together to create change. If approved by the CCC members, this resolution would become part of the CCC’s advocacy efforts for the next three years.
 
Systemic healthcare deficiencies across Canada are holding back our workforce and our economy.
 
The OurCare national survey showed an estimated 6.5 million Canadians are without a family doctor. In Ontario alone, the Ontario College of Family Physicians estimates 15 per cent of the population is without a family doctor and expects that to increase.
 
Workers who do not have access to primary healthcare through a family doctor are left to piece together solutions for their healthcare needs. The demands on hospitals and a lack of available workers have led to lengthy ER wait times, contributing to worse health outcomes, more time spent trying to access healthcare, and more lost time in the workforce.
 
A shortage of accredited workers is also holding back private sector healthcare providers from meeting the needs of Canadians and supplementing the public system.
 
In 2020, a Statistics Canada report noted skilled newcomers are under-used in the healthcare sector with 47 per cent of them either unemployed or underemployed in non-healthcare jobs needing only a high school education.
 
The Government of Canada already provides funding to governments and organizations through the Foreign Credential Recognition Program (FCRP) to support foreign credential recognition in Canada. These other organizations may include regulatory bodies, national associations and credential assessment agencies. Every year, Canada’s Foreign Credential Recognition Program invests roughly $27.1 million through agreements with provinces and territories, regulatory bodies and other stakeholders to help support the labour market integration of skilled newcomers.
 
While these measures may help, this piecemeal approach will also further exacerbate provincial and territorial variance as programs and projects are implemented on a case-by-case basis. These investments also demonstrate that the federal government accepts that it has a role to play in credential recognition, despite most credentialling bodies being provincial in nature.
 
The government of Canada should engage provinces and territories to create national credential recognition testing standards, as advocated by the Canadian Medical Association. The program could be modelled on the current Red Seal standard for trades, which has been used in Canada for more than 60 years. The Red Seal program sets common standards to assess the skills of tradespeople across Canada. Industry is heavily involved in developing the national standard for each trade. It is a partnership between the federal government and provinces and territories, which are responsible for apprenticeship training and trade certification in their jurisdictions.
 
A lack of cooperation between provinces and territories regarding healthcare accreditation is hindering workforce mobility as people are hesitant to take out-of-province jobs since they or their spouse may be ineligible to work in their area of expertise. Additionally, many are reluctant to move at all since they may not be able to get a family doctor if they relocate.
 
One place this workforce mobility issue is particularly challenging is within the Canadian Forces, which regularly transfers its workforce between provinces. While the member of the forces is able to work anywhere in Canada, their spouse might not be.
 
While healthcare is largely a provincial issue, it is clear we need our federal government to create a strategy to increase the mobility of healthcare workers between provinces and territories to make it easier to provide accreditation to foreign healthcare workers and allow them to use their skills anywhere in Canada.
 
Continuing with the status quo will increase lost time in the workforce, decrease workforce participation, hinder workforce mobility, and hold back both the public and private sectors from addressing healthcare needs in our country.
 
We are calling on the Government of Canada to:
1. Create a national strategy to assist provinces and territories to fast-track recognizing out-of-province and international healthcare credentials; and
2. Work with provinces and territories to develop a national proficiency exam that allows national labour mobility for healthcare workers new to Canada, currently working in a province, or newly graduated.