Uber president calls on federal government to speed up policy, program work

TORONTO –  

Uber’s president wants the federal government to act faster on policies and programs that will help Canadian companies build.

Andrew Macdonald, who is also the ride-hailing giant’s chief operating officer, said Wednesday that he thinks the country needs to move more quickly from announcements to progress.

As an example of how the government could speed up, he pointed to the major projects office Prime Minister Mark Carney launched last summer to fast-track the development of ports, railways, energy corridors and more.

The government is targeting a one-year timeline for project approvals.

“I don’t know why that can’t be six weeks with the tools we have,” he said.

By comparison, he pointed to Germany, which he said approved new liquefied natural gas terminals in a matter of days, when Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022.

“There are a number of examples when governments have had their, you know, feet to the fire … so it is possible but it just needs to go faster,” Macdonald said.

Macdonald’s remarks came at Homecoming, one of 600 events running during Toronto Tech Week, which will wrap up Friday.  

Macdonald, a Canadian who rose through the ranks of Uber before moving to the U.S. last year, was in conversation with Satish Kanwar, a former Shopify Inc. vice-president who has now founded a family investment office, when he urged the government to speed up.

Macdonald moved to the U.S. after he had become “quite vocal” about how the country was being run, especially amid the tariff war.

When former prime minister Justin Trudeau said in January 2025 that “we are Canadians because we are not Americans,” Macdonald thought it was “horrible.”

“We should aspire to be things,” he said. “We should not aspire not to be like them.”

He told Kanwar his jump across the border had nothing to do with politics but was rather his way of championing the market.

Carney has since replaced Trudeau and Macdonald has some optimism about the change.

He said he likes some of the bills working their way through Parliament, though he didn’t specify which.

“But I just want everything to go faster,” he said, adding Carney has been in power for more than a year now and recently secured a majority.

“They should feel like they have a mandate for what they’re saying they’re going to do, and I think the direction of travel is good, but I think we just need to go much, much faster.”

Kanwar appeared to agree.

He said he recently realized the country is still awaiting an artificial intelligence strategy the government has long teased as coming “soon.”

“We’re talking about one of the most obvious sets of things that need to be done and we’re over a year later waiting for a published plan, yet alone what that plan will say about what then happens and what time frame,” Kanwar said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2026.