CALGARY – The chief executive of the country’s biggest bank says Canada needs to become less risk-averse if it is to prosper in the face of global trade upheaval.
“We bubble wrap way too many things in this country because we’re afraid of making a mistake,” Royal Bank of Canada boss Dave McKay told a Calgary Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Wednesday.
Trepidation at all levels of government has made for lengthy approval timelines for new projects, McKay said.
“Time costs money. Uncertainty costs money. Therefore, it’s very difficult for us as a country to move forward on things with any degree of confidence and speed, and the rest of the world feels that,” he said.
McKay said there have been a number of false starts on new major infrastructure projects, and that’s caused companies to balk at putting up capital.
“You have a number of leadership teams that say, ‘I can’t invest a ton more energy, money and time into this if it’s going to go down a rabbit hole,” he said.
“So we need to move forward and get these things approved and then start securing the financing because it’s there. It’s just waiting for us to get out of our own way.”
McKay made his remarks a week after the Alberta government announced it would fund early work on a new pipeline proposal to the northern B.C. coast, with the hope the private sector will eventually take over.
Such a project would enable more Alberta oilsands crude to access lucrative markets across the Pacific.
Premier Danielle Smith and industry leaders said federal policies, like a ban on oil tankers off the northern B.C. coast and an emissions cap, have made it impossible for private companies to justify proposing such a project.
The province aims to file its proposal this spring to the new Major Projects Office, created under federal legislation whose goal is to speed along infrastructure deemed in Canada’s national interest.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Carney wrapped a visit to Washington on Wednesday with no deal in hand to lift U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods.
McKay said Canada needs to come to terms with the fact that any agreement it reaches with the U.S. will require it to pay some sort of “market access fee.” As a result, companies are going to have to innovate, absorb those costs or pass them on to consumers.
“I don’ think that we’re going to be better off through this,” McKay said. “I don’t know how much worse off.”
That’s going to mean trying to reach “grand bargains” with European and Asia Pacific economies, using high-demand agriculture and energy resources for leverage.
McKay said he hopes that even if Canada and the U.S. can come to an understanding on trade, that this country doesn’t fall back into complacency.
“The whole idea of the world preying on America and taking advantage of America… is not held just with the president. It’s held deeply within the ideology of the White House and of the (Republican) party,” he said.
That means the U.S. attitude to trade is unlikely to change even with a deal, and the issue will just rear its head again in other forms, McKay said.
“Even if I’m wrong and everything goes back, why wouldn’t we want to grow our economy?”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2025.
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