The Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), renamed Business Council of Canada in 2016,
Tenure of Thomas d'Aquino (1981-2009) In 1981, when Thomas d'Aquino was named as Business Council on National Issues's CEO, "not many companies were truly global players. The vast majority were inward-looking. As a result of
globalization and free trade, we have considerably more companies that are truly global." He was 40-years-old and most of the CEO's were ten or twenty years older than he was. In 1981, the Business Council on National Issues (BCNI) — which then represented approximately 140 major corporations across Canada and represented "well over $125 billion in annual sales" — commissioned a booklet entitled "A Citizen's Guide to the Constitutional Question." This was submitted to the Special Joint Committee on the Constitution (SJC), a special joint committee of the
House of Commons of Canada and the
Senate of Canada to receive submissions regarding the
patriation of the
Constitution of Canada. The ''Citizen's Guide'' was accompanied by a letter, in which the BCNI advocated for the protection of economic rights, including "
property rights, rights to
due process and to just compensation", "not just to individuals or citizens, but to all persons, including
corporate persons." The called for "
mobility rights", the right to "move goods, services, capital, entrepreneurship, freely within the territorial boundaries of Canada." In the name of economic efficiency, the BCNI called for the elimination of internal
barriers to trade in order to be competitive. They wrote that, the "preservation of relatively free inter-provincial trade within the Canadian federation is essential to the economic welfare of all Canadians." D'Aquino was one of the "private sector architects" of the "Canada-United States free trade initiative" and
NAFTA. One of BCNI's early achievements included a major study on parliamentary reform undertaken by BCNI resulting in the 1983 publication of
Parliamentary Democracy in Canada: Issues for reform. Another early success was BCNI's role in engineering the landmark 1985 Western Accord on Energy. BCNI arranged a series of meetings between "oil executives and the Alberta Government, industrialists and the Ontario government, and bankers and the Federal Government." The Western Accord signed on June 1, 1985, replaced the reviled
National Energy Program. It "was virtually an echo of the BCNI's proposals." In an August 1986 interview in Ottawa, d'Aquino was "concerned to differentiate the BCNI from neo-conservative bodies such as the
National Citizens' Coalition or the
Fraser Institute." By 1987, the BCNI has been successful in forging "common positions on major issues... [despite] the wide diversity of sectoral and regional representation ... consensus has been achieved in virtually every task force initiative since 1981." cited in Langille. d'Aquino noted that Canada had cut inflation and interest rates, expanded exports and jobs and reduced government deficits, but he called on the federal to make "significant tax cuts." against the backdrop of the "growing
anti-globalization movement", d'Aquino, echoing Fred Bernsten, reminded Canadian CEOs "not to take globalization for granted." Globalization was reversible. "From the perspective of
enlightened self-interest, d'Aquino noted that business leaders had to spend more time explaining the benefits of globalization, become better global citizens and devote greater resources towards "shoring up and improving key global institutions." By 2009, as a "result of globalization and free trade, [Canada had] considerably more companies that are truly global."CCCE's 150 CEOs represented "$4.5 trillion in assets with $850 billion in revenues." In 2009 d'Aquino was described by
Globe and Mail's
John Lorinc as Canada's "behind-the-scenes prime minister" and the "most influential corporate tout" for almost 30 years.
John Manley (2009-2018) In January 2016, the CCCE was renamed the Business Council of Canada. According to a BCC January 2016 article, members of the "40-year-old organization" are "CEOs and entrepreneurs of 150 leading Canadian companies" that "employ[ed] 1.4 million Canadians, account[ed] for more than half the value of the
Toronto Stock Exchange, contribute[d] the largest share of federal corporate taxes, and [were] responsible for most of Canada's exports, corporate philanthropy, and private-sector investments in research and development." who had been in the position since Thomas d'Aquino stepped down in 2009.
economic growth and bolstering the Canada-U.S. relationship. ==Archives==