The French expression “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” means the more things change, the more things stay the same. This is certainly true in Canada right now, and that is a bad thing. What we desperately need in Canada currently is substantial change on a number of fronts so we can reverse the negative trends we’ve experienced over the last decade. Labour Day and the beginning of autumn is a good time for reflection as summer holidays end, school begins, and governments get back into gear.
This past summer was busier than usual for Canadian governments and those of us who like to keep an eye on them, mostly because of the trade policies of U.S. President Donald Trump. Action from the federal Liberals to implement policies that would actually help Canadians has been virtually non-existent. An exception might be the recent complete reversal of the Carney government’s imposition of retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. It was the right thing to do, but these tariffs should never have been imposed in the first place. The retaliatory tariffs have already damaged Canadian businesses and eliminated jobs before Carney smartened up and adopted the strategy that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has pursued from the start of Trump’s tenure as U.S. President. It seems that Carney’s juvenile “elbows up” silliness has turned out to be the chicken dance after all.
Parliament will return on Sept. 15 and is expected to be lively to say the least. After his election in an Alberta riding, Pierre Poilievre will be back in the House of Commons as Conservative Party leader. As Poilievre is an excellent debater, he will finally impose the scrutiny the Carney government deserves but has not yet experienced. To date, Carney has been very secretive about his plans, making vague statements about major nation-building projects and boosting Canada’s dismal economic performance without much if any detail being made public. In fact, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson explicitly said that they wouldn’t be conducting consultations on the major projects which would be chosen by the government to be implemented but would announce them after the decision had already been finalized.
There has been much justified criticism over the years about too much power being concentrated in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) under both Liberal and Conservative governments. However, this type of secrecy around major, multi-billion-dollar expenditures of taxpayer monies takes it to a new level. The fact that funds are already being spent without any budget being made public by the Liberals is frightening, especially as many analysts are already estimating that the federal deficit will be in the neighbourhood of $100 billion. We are already paying over $50 billion annually just for debt service payments – more than the federal government transfers to provinces for healthcare. An increasing deficit added to already enormous federal debt can only drag the economy down further and drive more investment out of Canada.
The first significant action of the Liberals took place recently with the announcement of a Major Projects Office, supposedly to fast-track these large infrastructure efforts Carney has been alluding to in past months. As Trudeau increased the federal bureaucracy size by about 40 per cent and the cost by 70 per cent during his nine years in power, it’s hard to see why current government resources could not be realigned to focus on major projects instead of creating a whole new, and undoubtedly expensive, government agency. We already have the public sector growing at a faster rate than the private sector in Canada, which is an indication of an economy in decline. It’s hard to see how making this even worse can be positive.
It’s pretty clear to most Canadians what the key problems are facing Canada. What is frustrating is that the answers to these problems are not complicated, but our politicians have to date refused to pursue them. For starters, current immigration policy is reckless and harming our social fabric. The answer is to reduce immigration to manageable levels, deport people with expired visas, keep criminals out of the country and deal with bogus refugee claims instead of permitting phony refugees to remain here for years. Our underutilized resource sector is preventing growth that could greatly enrich Canadians and provide many well-paying jobs, but we need get rid of much Trudeau-era legislation that hamstrings many of our key industries.
We also need to stop foolish subsidies to businesses such as EVs and reform our expensive and complex tax system for both individuals and businesses. Government must be shrunk, not expanded, to reduce the burden on the productive private sector. Criminal justice and bail system reforms are badly needed to keep repeat offenders off the streets and permit Canadians to feel safe again.
The Carney government has so far been unwilling to seize these opportunities, betraying the trust of the “elbows up” crowd who supported him and exasperating the businesses who would like to take advantage of opportunities in Canada but are instead taking their investment dollars elsewhere. This autumn will be the litmus test for the Carney government, with its actions over the next few months revealing whether Carney and his colleagues – many of whom date from the Trudeau era – will do the right things for Canada or just continue to oversee its decline. Let’s hope they make the right choice, and Canada experiences the real change that Carney promised during the election.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
