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“Many are just sitting on cash waiting to see what happens,” John Manley, head of Business Council of Canada, said of Canadian firms.

The Trudeau government, Manley added, should keep an close eye on tax-competitiveness issues and ensure it has a contingency plan ready to deploy, if necessary.

Manley, a former Liberal finance minister, said corporate decisions are often made very quickly — and once an investment is lost, it doesn’t come back.

Manley was in Washington on Wednesday to meet with members of Congress in hopes of learning more about the White House’s intentions on some the most worrisome economic issues for Canada.

In summary, he said no one really knows.

“The president has demonstrated that what he says publicly he doesn’t always intend to have taken literally, and that’s just his style,” Manley said.

“And so, I think we have to be careful about overreacting to some of the stuff that comes out.”

He said it’s also important to recognize that Trump’s ambitious tax proposal is a long way from becoming law because it would likely cost the U.S. government trillions of dollars of lost revenue.

Mathew Wilson, senior vice president of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said the organization has been urging Ottawa to seriously consider easing its own regulations and to ensure the effective corporate rate remains competitive with the U.S.

Canadian investment has been “terrible” under current conditions and a major tax cut in the U.S. would only make things worse, Wilson said.

“If companies aren’t investing in Canada, the economy just grinds to a halt,” said Wilson, whose organization represents more than 10,000 companies.

“It’s got to be a top-level concern and if we don’t get the economic fundamentals right in Canada, to have a competitive investment climate, we’re in deep trouble.”

© The Canadian Press