Despite the current economic headwinds and the U.S. President
's
“Everything will be fine” in Canada, says
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
a retiring CEO just days away from retirement.
who led Canada's fifth-largest bank for about a decade, said the country's natural resources sector and its highly educated
should help Canada “come out on top.”
But he also said the last decade could have been better.
“Let's just say the last 10 years may not have been our finest hour,” Dodig, who retires Friday, said at a Canadian club event in Toronto on Monday. “Maybe I'm being too kind in saying this. You lose a decade, maybe you lose two decades. You lose two decades, you lose a generation. And that's something really, really serious.”
The federal government has promised to build new projects to boost an economy that has been underperforming in recent years and is currently struggling with high growth.
. It has also been trying to reduce its dependence on the US since Trump began imposing tariffs on Canadian goods earlier this year.
Besides
Dodig also wants Canada to implement policies that can help people aged 21 to 35, who he says “need hope” in unaffordable environments.
“If you make $75,000 in Toronto, you have no hope of saving for a house. Old people want X, young people want Y, and young people's problems aren't being addressed,” he said. “If you look at
and provincial budgets and city budgets around the world… you would be shocked at how little is allocated (to young people).”
Dodig also said there was a need for more “capital dynamism” to create more small and medium-sized enterprises.
“Nation building projects are great. We need them… but they won't rejuvenate the social fabric of our cities or our suburbs where capital is desperately needed,” he said.
Dodig said many wealthy Canadians are willing to invest in high-risk businesses, but perhaps those losses could be treated as pass-through shares that could help deduct taxes.
Recalling his time at CIBC, he recalled how his first thought when applying for the CEO position was, “Damn it, if I get this job, how am I going to do it?”
But the steps he took seem to have paid off. When he joined the bank, only two percent of CIBC's revenue came from the United States. Today, he says, that figure is about 20 percent.
“The lesson we've learned is not unlike the lesson our own country is experiencing. When you're overwhelmingly dependent on one market or one segment, it's likely to create problems at some point,” he said. “So our goal was to diversify outside of Canada.”
Dodig said the bank has more room for growth in its wealth and commercial businesses.
It was during his time that CIBC decided to build its head office in downtown Toronto instead of having employees scattered across 23 different buildings, but it was not easy.
“Whether you're rebranding a bank or relocating a building and modernizing it, there's always the question of, 'Well, could you do this instead,'” he said. “And that's the challenge of running a public company that's judged by quarterly results. There's a constant tension of balancing quarterly results with long-term goals.”
The son of an immigrant, Dodig said he mispronounced English words as a teenager and didn't go out to restaurants often because “the whole idea” was to keep saving money.
“If everyone lived like my parents, the entire hospitality industry would collapse,” he said with a laugh.
But he said those obstacles ended up being a blessing because they helped him become stronger.
“You’re always on the outside trying to get in,” he said. “That's probably the biggest benefit of all. It makes you more resilient.”
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