This article appears in the September issue of Investment Executive.

This isn’t just an entrepreneur’s issue. It directly affects the advisors and institutions who serve these businesses.

My grandparents came to Canada from Scandinavia with the belief that if they worked hard, they could build a better life. My grandfather, for example, bought a patch of land in the Canadian Shield in his early 20s, rooted in the promise that if he worked the land, it would translate into a real, tangible reward, and it did.

Like many early immigrants, my grandparents didn’t come to our country because it was easy. They came because Canada offered something far more valuable than the comfort of their homeland: opportunity.

Today, the Canada my grandparents were drawn to, the country where effort equaled reward, is starting to lose that promise.

As someone who has scaled a business in this country and now works in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), I see the signs of economic stagnation not just in macro indicators, but in the day-to-day decisions of small business owners, young professionals and families trying to build a future here. What we’re facing isn’t just economic pressure, it’s an identity crisis.

We don’t need to reinvent Canada, we need to remember who we are and restore the conditions that once made prosperity possible here.

Upward mobility is broken

The promise that hard work will pay off has been replaced by skyrocketing housing costs, stagnant wages and a tax structure that disincentivizes growth.

According to a 2023 CMHC report, the average home price in Canada is around $700,000, which is out of reach for most citizens under 35. Even households earning over $100,000 are being priced out of major markets and that should concern all Canadians because it signals a deeper fracture in our economic model.

For many young Canadians, building wealth through real estate, entrepreneurship or long-term investing, feels more like fantasy than a viable path forward. It’s no surprise that Statistics Canada reports the percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds living with their parents is at an all-time high.

This stagnation affects not only families, but also the advisors and institutions trying to help them build financial futures. A generation without clear pathways to ownership or capital formation will drive different behaviors — less long-term planning, lower engagement with advisors and reduced appetite for risk.

In 2022, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) employed nearly 64% of Canada’s private-sector workforce. And yet, those of us working in this space know how difficult it is to grow under the current tax and regulatory conditions.

As someone who has built a national M&A business, I’ve seen firsthand how red tape, compliance costs and unpredictable tax policy make even the savviest founders question whether the reward is worth the effort.

Canadian SMEs face some of the highest combined payroll and compliance costs among OECD countries. According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, red tape alone costs small businesses more than $10.5 billion in lost productivity each year.

This isn’t just an entrepreneur’s issue. It directly affects the advisors and institutions who serve these businesses, from succession planning to valuations and deal structuring. If we want to maintain a healthy, growing middle market, we need to reduce the friction on the very businesses that keep our economy moving.

It’s time to modernize the tax structure for SMEs, offer real rewards for reinvestment and reduce the policy drag that makes it so difficult to scale. A business that reinvests in jobs, training or technology should see that reflected in meaningful tax relief, not just political lip service.

We need to embrace our strengths

Canada is a resource-rich, globally trusted and highly educated country. Yet too often, we ignore our structural advantages in favour of short-term populism.

According to Natural Resources Canada, mining alone contributed more than $125 billion to GDP in 2023. Agriculture and forestry are experiencing similar growth, especially when paired with clean-tech innovation.

These are the industries where Canada can lead, not just participate. But we need to stop forcing entrepreneurs and innovators to work against the current.

At technology conferences, I often see Canadian founders chasing trendy sectors where we have no advantage, while underinvesting in areas where we could actually lead globally like agtech, mineral processing and energy.

If advisors want to help clients build generational wealth, we need to encourage bold thinking not just in portfolios, but in policy. That means supporting entrepreneurship in sectors where Canada has both natural resources and technical expertise and creating the financial frameworks that help those businesses grow.

We were built on the belief that hard work, integrity and innovation could create a better life. But bureaucracy has replaced opportunity, and politics has replaced planning.

This is a defining moment for policymakers, financial professionals and business leaders alike. The question is: how do we restore the incentives that made our country prosperous and aspirational.

We don’t need to start over. But we do need to start remembering what made Canada strong in the first place, and get back to building a future that rewards effort, risk and vision.

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