McTEAGUE: Mark Carney's rhetoric doesn't match reality
· Toronto Sun
Prime Minister Mark Carney campaigned on a promise to build things faster than anything Canada has seen in generations. His major projects office was supposed to be the engine of a new era and signal to the world that we are open for business. But, as has so often been the case in the Carney era, the rhetoric hasn’t matched the reality.
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Faced with backlash from activist groups — whose cozy relations with the government are largely responsible for the glacial pace of these approvals — the Carney government is tapping the brakes on its planned regulatory changes.
Once again, the Green lobby said “jump,” and the Liberals asked, “how high?”
That’s terrible news for Canada. We are in a recession — and don’t try calling it a “technical” recession. That’s what the kids call “cope.”
‘Green Recession’
This is what I’ve taken to calling the Green Recession — an economic contraction animated by years of self-inflicted wounds: blocked pipelines, various carbon taxes, EV mandates, and other net-zero fantasies that drive away investment.
It’s no accident that, even with Carney, and all of his purported business acumen, at the helm of our country, the loonie has remained weak while our unemployment rate has continued to tick upward. These are signs that investors have decided Canada’s assets aren’t worth the risk.
Oil and natural gas is the backbone of our economy, sustaining jobs — both inside of, and adjacent to, the industry itself — while bolstering our exports and providing the government with much needed tax revenue.
But for more than a decade now, Ottawa has waged a sustained war on the resource sector. What other country would behave this way towards its most profitable industry?
Our sluggish economy, and elevated cost of living, is the natural result.
Now, some will try to pin the blame on the turmoil in the Strait of Hormuz. Obviously, that is a contributing factor. But at the end of the day, ours is the only G7 country currently in recession. Other nations are navigating the same rough waters we are, and they are managing it. It’s Canada that is sinking.
We should be prospering
And here is the bitter irony: with our immense oil and gas reserves, Canada should be in a position to benefit from this disruption. With global energy markets rattled, a country with our proven reserves should be stepping in to supply the energy the world needs, and prospering as a result.
Which is not to say that we haven’t capitalized on this crisis at all — our trade surplus jumped by 55% in April, driven almost entirely by demand for Canadian crude. But that’s not nearly enough to right the Canadian ship, and our lack of pipeline capacity makes for a hard ceiling to our ability to expand production much further.
Our activist class, in and around the government, are determined that that should remain the case. Because of their ideological obsessions, they would be happy to see the Green Recession go on forever.
Carney has a choice. He can keep deferring to them. Or he can make good on his promise to build. He can table real regulatory reform, making Canada an attractive place to invest and to build, and reap the benefits of expanded and modernized energy infrastructure, including improved employment numbers, a stronger dollar, a paid down national debt, a vibrant economy, and a lower cost of living.
Do I think that he’s likely to go down that road? Well, considering that he comes from the activist class himself, not especially.
But a man can dream.
– Dan McTeague is President of Canadians for Affordable Energy and a former 18 year Toronto area Liberal MP