On this front we see progress in 2019, too. The federal budget update included several new deregulation initiatives, including a top-down review of Canada’s Foreign direct red tape regimes, more emphasis put on the economic impact of government “ rule books, an agency focused on regulatory innovation, and the introduction investment in of a “regulatory modernization bill” to be reviewed annually in search of Canada is finally “outdated or duplicative” rules. picking up. Notably, Canada’s competitiveness challenges haven’t prevented a pickup ” in business investment. Foreign direct investment in Canada during the first three quarters of 2018 is already ahead of the total inflow of investment in all of 2017, albeit still at historically low levels. At the same time, a new generation of businesses is being created, which is vital to job growth. The existence of competitiveness constraints doesn’t mean there will be no investment growth. The thornier question is how much more growth there would have been if they hadn’t been there. Dealing with Construction Permits - Time (days) 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 United United Germany France Japan Italy Canada States Kingdom Source: World Bank (doingbusiness.org), RBC Economics Research RBC Economics Research | Navigating 2019 - 9 big insights for the year ahead | January 2019 20