Despite the current economic hurdles and United States president

Donald Trump

’s

tariff threats

, Canada “will be OK,” says

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce

‘s outgoing chief executive just days before his retirement.

Victor Dodig

, who has led Canada’s fifth-largest bank for about a decade, said the country’s natural resources sector and its highly educated

labour force

should help Canada “come out on top.”

But he also said that the past decade could have been better.

“Let’s say the last 10 years have been, maybe not our finest hour,” Dodig, who retires on Friday, said at a Canadian Club event in Toronto on Monday. “Maybe I am being too kind in saying that. You lose a decade, arguably, you lose two decades. You lose two decades, you’ll lose a generation. And that is something really, really serious.”

The federal government has vowed to build new projects to boost the economy, which hasn’t been productive in recent years and is currently struggling with high

unemployment rates

. It’s also been trying to reduce its reliance on the U.S. ever since Trump began imposing tariffs on Canadian goods earlier this year.

Aside from the

nation-building projects

, Dodig also wants Canada to implement policies that can help people between the ages of 21 and 35, who he said “need hope” in an unaffordable environment.

“If you are making $75,000 in the City of Toronto, you have no hope for saving for a house. Old people want X, young people want Y and young people’s concerns aren’t being addressed,” he said. “If you look at the

federal budgets

and the provincial budgets and the city budgets of the world … you’d be shocked at how little is allocated to (younger people).”

Dodig also said there’s a need for more “capital dynamism” to create more small and mid-sized businesses.

“Nation-building projects are great. We need that … but that’s not going to rejuvenate the social fabric of our cities or our suburbs, where capital is desperately needed,” he said.

Dodig said many affluent Canadians are willing to invest in businesses that are high risk, but perhaps those losses could be treated as flow-through shares that can help deduct taxes.

Reflecting on his time at CIBC, he recalled how his first thought while applying for the CEO position was, “Holy s***, if I get this job, how am I going to do it?”

But the steps he took seem to have paid off. Just two per cent of CIBC’s earnings came from the U.S. when he joined the bank. Today, he said, that figure is about 20 per cent.

“The lesson that we have is not unlike the lesson that our own country is experiencing. When you depend on one market or one segment overwhelmingly, it is likely at some point in time to create problems,” he said. “So, our goal was to diversify beyond Canada.”

Dodig said there’s more room to grow for the bank in its wealth and commercial businesses.

It was also during his time that CIBC decided to build a head office in downtown Toronto instead of employees being scattered in 23 different buildings, but it wasn’t an easy call.

“Whether you rebrand the bank or whether you change the building location and modernize it, it’s always, ‘Well, you could have done this instead,’” he said. “And that’s the challenge of running a public company that’s judged on quarterly results. There’s that constant tension to balance the results of the quarter with the long-term goal.”

A son of an immigrant, Dodig said he used to mispronounce English words and didn’t enter restaurants frequently as a teenager because the “whole idea” was to keep saving money.

“If everyone lived like my parents did, the entire hospitality industry would collapse,” he said with a laugh.

But he said those hurdles ended up as a blessing because they helped him grow stronger.

“You’re always on the outside trying to work yourself into the inside,” he said. “That has probably been the biggest benefit of all. That stuff makes you more resilient.”

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• Email: nkarim@postmedia.com