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“All of these were in play at a very challenging time in Canada,” he said, noting concerns about competitiveness are coupled with pockets of economic challenges in this country. These include the decline of manufacturing in Ontario, illustrated by this week’s announcement the General Motors would not longer be making cars at its Oshawa plant after 2019, and the impact of low oil prices in Western Canada.

The number of directors who think the economy will improve “dropped more than we would have expected them to,” Bhardwaj said, adding that there was a “sense of buoyancy” among directors in the organization’s spring survey, even as executives at that time were fretting about the precarious nature of trade deals under NAFTA.

The newly negotiated Unites States-Mexico-Canada agreement bought a somewhat improved outlook for the Canadian economy from those who answered the survey questions after the USMCA agreement was announced at the end of September, noted the ICD report, which tallied surveys completed between Sept. 15 and Oct. 19.

However, directors were also wary about the future of the global economy. Only 29 per cent said they believed the global economy would improve in the next two to five years, compared to 43 per cent who believed a year earlier that it would improve.

In addition to economic concerns, the latest ICD survey revealed that the #MeToo movement, which inspired a growing list of accusations of abuse of power in corporate, entertainment, and political circles, appears to have raised risk concerns in Canadian boardrooms.