Building 'a whole other Canadian economy'
OTTAWA -- The Canadian dollar's sustained strength has triggered widespread concern about the competitiveness of Canadian companies in foreign markets. But the head of Canada's export financing agency says exchange rates needn't be the worry they used to be.
Stephen Poloz, the Export Development Canada veteran who became the Crown corporation's chief executive officer in January, said the more Canadian businesses spread their operations across the globe, the more insulated they make themselves to swings in the currency. And, he says, this is happening on an encouraging scale, as a growing number of executives actively search for clever ways to make their companies more resilient in an environment where the loonie could be near parity with the U.S. dollar for years.
"Companies are less likely to just say to me, 'I don't know what I'll do if the dollar goes up another cent,'" Dr. Poloz said. "Instead, they'll say, 'Here's what I'm doing already, and I've made a business plan [that takes into account] a certain degree of uncertainty.' There's been a persistent maturation in how executives think about the loonie, and how they deal with it."
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