Business leaders and CEOs on the COMPAS panel are divided about whether the federal government should extend the infrastructure spending fund deadline beyond March 31st. Fairness to municipalities whose funding applications have been delayed by flooding and other factors beyond their control is the only reason that elicits plurality support.

A background factor is a lack of confidence that Canada’s government can do much about economic slowdown given that economic challenges are now global. Members of the business panel believe that governments are capable of doing more harm to the economy than good. Thus, 49% believe that a skilled government can do good vs. 85% who believe that an unskilled government can do harm. At the extremes, 6% believe that a skilled government can do a lot of good, scoring 7 on a 7 point scale, while 43% believe an unskilled government can do a lot of harm.

With respect to doing either good or harm, panelists express far more confidence in Harper than Ignatieff. Harper outperforms Ignatieff 6:1 in terms of his probability of doing good for our economy while Ignatieff is chosen four times more often than Harper as a leader who could do harm to our economy.

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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