Economic freedom on the wane across Canada

Canadian provinces once again lag behind U.S. states in economic freedom, finds a new report released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan, public policy think-tank.
Economic freedom—the ability of individuals to make their own economic decisions about what to buy, where to work and whether to start a business—remains fundamental to prosperity. Detailed tables for each country and subnational jurisdiction can be found at www.fraserinstitute.org .

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 Our governments, federal and provincial, are all promising to restart our economy. They have plans to spend borrowed money to support business and industrial corporations and sectors they choose.

We should be alarmed.

Our governments placed fighting COVID-19 spread as the single priority for the nation and destroyed our economy while doing so.

Individual Canadians lost economic security and have no reason to believe that they will return to a stable environment in the foreseeable future. Millions lost their incomes through business closures and have no assurance that they can find steady employment again.

A president has been set and continues. The federal government claims we face a climate crisis and has targeted the oil and gas industry for closure through incrementally strict emissions regulation. Provincial and federal governments are pouring money into businesses and industries they deem worthy of moving to a green economy, which is just a catch-phrase for combatting climate change.

Reinvigorating our economy is another disaster in the making. The opportunities for government corruption are unlimited. Anyone who believes that corporations who make substantial donations to political parties will not receive priority treatment in accessing government grants lives under a rock.
Every level of government will be part of the action. Contractors who play nice with the people in power will get priority treatment.

Therein lays the key to our anxiety over a return to economic security. If a corporation does not support the party in power and is not on their favoured list, continued employment is sketchy. Governments have destroyed financial security in the private sector.

Governments are using the COVID and climate crises to avoid their responsibilities to govern prudently and responsibly. They claim that massive spending is required even if our cupboards are bare. We are approaching two years of erratic and ineffective spending on COVID and are far worse off than we were in January 2020.

During the Glasgow gabfest, our federal government committed $3.2 billion to end deforestation in foreign countries. Canadians will not benefit from one dime.

Put in perspective, if the government spent $5 per second, 24 hours a day continuously, it would take 20 years to spend $3.2 billion. We are dishing that amount out in borrowed money to foreigners in 2022 without any plan to pay back the loans.

Allowing these political cliques to guide economic recovery is suicidal. It’s the equivalent of giving an irresponsible teenager a bottle of whisky and a powerful sports car.

The only way to recover is to insist that parliament and our legislatures do the job they were elected to do. They have to focus on domestic issues by providing services to Canadians by following our constitution instead of ordering us about like serfs.

Political parties have perpetuated the myth that governments can solve all our problems when they often are the problem.

There is no longer any connection between our elected representatives and the people they serve. Political parties go into an election cherry-picking social issues and promising to address those issues to garner votes. No thought is given to costs or that addressing social issues leaves less money for essential services such as education, health care and infrastructure.

The inmates have converted parliament into an asylum for the cognitively impaired.