TORONTO, August 24, 2026 -- Canada has the capital. It has the companies. But the financial plumbing connecting the two is broken. A new report from the Toronto Region Board of Trade warns that Canada is failing to finance its most promising companies, forcing too many to sell early or leave and grow elsewhere.
The Capital to Compete sets out nine actions to unlock debt and equity financing, while creating a more competitive tax and regulatory environment for businesses to invest, scale, and grow.
The evidence is stark:
- Canada's three largest startup ecosystems lost $66 billion in ecosystem value between 2019 and 2024, equivalent to 133,000 high-quality startup jobs.
- Canada ranks dead last in the OECD in business lending, with just 12% being lent to SMEs, compared with an OECD average of 47%.
- Canadian businesses spend $17.9 billion on unnecessary or duplicative red tape.
Nine recommendations to give our high-growth businesses the capital to compete:
Recommendations to improve debt financing
- Reduce regulatory capital requirements on SME lending
- Expand the Canada Small Business Financing Program
- Establish an intellectual property lending framework
Recommendations to mobilize equity capital
- Modernize insurance investment rules
- Establish a national securities regulator
- Adopt fund-of-funds best practises and remove the 30 percent ownership rule
Strengthening the conditions for growth
- Modernize capital gains taxes
- Reform tax and regulatory barriers
- Streamline and consolidate government business support programs
“There is an alarming shortfall of growth capital. Canada is producing world-class companies and then starving them of the financing they need to compete. Unless we fix the system, we will keep losing businesses, intellectual property, jobs and economic value.”
— Giles Gherson, President & CEO, Toronto Region Board of Trade
The Toronto Region Board of Trade is one of the largest and most influential business chambers in North America and is a catalyst for the region’s economic agenda. We pursue policy change to drive the growth and competitiveness of the Toronto region and facilitate market opportunities with programs, partnerships and connections to help our members succeed – domestically and internationally.
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