Have confidence in the Bank of Canada’s leadership. That is one element of key advice to the Prime Minister from the COMPAS business panel. Central bank incompetence was the main cause of the Great Depression in panelists’ opinion. Central banks today will be the key factor in achieving a turnaround, according to the predominant opinion among members of the panel.

The CEOs and business leaders do believe that Canadian governments must increase infrastructure spending. A sizeable number of panelists nonetheless also believe that governments must be wary that such spending can backfire on the economy. Heavy government spending can make matters worse as consumers and business cut back for fear that heavy government spending today will lead to lower spending tomorrow, higher taxes, and even debt default.

Next week’s CEO poll report reports the views of CEOs and business leaders on the panel towards how infrastructure spending should be carried out, the rules that should guide infrastructure investments.

These are the key findings from this past week’s Internet survey of CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS panel. The weekly business survey is undertaken for Canadian Business magazine under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP.

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