Businesses must take charge of realizing the potential opportunities created by Budget 2025 to draw investors, according to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
Economic disruption has hindered management of the current business landscape’s growth. The chamber forecasted a GDP of 1.52 percent for the third quarter of 2025.
Candace Laing, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said Canada has “an urgent need to get back to a growing, productive economy.”
“In this federal budget, the government has heard business’ call to focus on the economy and has made some tough choices to attract investment. Individual businesses — small, medium and large — will be the ultimate judges of whether this is enough to start making investments in Canada again,” she said in a statement.
Budget 2025 has concentrated on publicly supporting capital investments, establishing new fiscal anchors, and making operational cuts to maintain reasonable restraint, according to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Matthew Holmes, executive vice president and chief of public policy, explained that the government was “making some large expectations on returns” to drive capital investment.
“It will be up to businesses to see if this will be enough to spur the level of economic activity, return on investment and capital attraction the government hopes for. At the same time, we’re pleased to see the government has made some difficult reprioritizations and cuts, while also making significant new defence spending to meet our NATO commitments,” he said.
He pointed out that divisive politics was a factor in economic turmoil.
“Investors and employers need stability, consistency and a sense that Canada can still nation-build in troubling times, which is why Parliamentarians must come together quickly to agree on a reasonable path to passage of a Budget — even if it sees some changes,” Holmes said.
Laing praised the government’s investment in trade diversification, which she said would limit overreliance.
“Many business owners have used their personal savings to stay afloat — leaving little room to absorb new costs. They’ve carried extraordinary burdens over the past five years but need breathing room to scale. Our Canadian Chamber Missions to new markets understand SMEs are critical to our economic DNA,” she said.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce said that with the budget improving the balance between fiscal restraint and targeted investment, growth would depend on the execution and follow through so that policies resulted in real-world competitiveness.