Canada: put regionalism aside | Financial Post

Article content

The world order, as we have known it for the past 80 years, is over and unlikely to return. For the first time in our history, Canada stands alone.

Article content

Article content

We can lament the past when we knew who the good guys were and when signed treaties between friends were respected. We had easy access to a large market which enabled us to avoid making difficult decisions.

The old order fuelled selfish regionalism which inhibited us from striking important decisions that would have made us stronger — and helped us fight a tariff war. Energy East jumps to mind. The private sector was happy to take it on, but Ottawa let it die in the name of national unity and perhaps the environment.

Article content

The decision forced Canada to import oil from the Middle East. Heavy oil tankers crossing oceans are not good for the environment. Energy East would have made Canada economically stronger, would have lessened Europe’s dependency on Russian oil, and would have helped us deal more effectively with a belligerent U.S. president. However hard I try, I am unable to make the decision make sense.

Governments became comfortable with the old order. It made life easier. Instead of striking difficult decisions, they patched up problems with new programs all too often defined on the fly without a full appreciation of how they would be implemented. Governments just kept growing. Today the federal government is home to 300 organizations, 368,000 positions, too many management levels, too many associate positions attached to too many executive positions, all costing taxpayers some $70 billion in addition to $15-billion-plus in consultant fees.

An existential crisis offers hope that we will be able to address long-standing problems and there are encouraging signs that we are on the right track. Selfish regionalism is on the wane, thankfully. There is a growing sense of national pride that I have never seen. This opens the window to big ideas, striking difficult decisions and embracing change.

Article content

Article content

We have been talking for the past 55 years about giving Western Canada a stronger say in shaping national policies. Time to do something about it. We have been talking about moving away from governing from the centre in Ottawa for the past 25 years. Time to do something about it. Canadians need to see that their views expressed through their members of Parliament and cabinet ministers matter. Governing from the centre discourages innovation and bottles up decisions that should be made down the line.

We have been talking about dealing with interprovincial trade barriers for 50 years or more. Time to do something about it. There are encouraging signs that premiers are finally looking at doing away with them, but talking about it is not enough. Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston is showing the way, time for the other premiers to follow his lead.

Leading economists have of late talked about the need to strengthen productivity. Time to do something about it with a sense of urgency. We need to overhaul our tax policies to encourage investments both domestic and foreign. Our entrepreneurs can show the way to increase productivity, but we need to give them the room and incentives to do it. The full impact of artificial intelligence is just around the corner and there is a need to equip our small businesses and Canadians to become full participants in this fast-emerging economy.

Article content

Governments also need to strengthen productivity. The problem is not with individual public servants — they want to be productive and to serve the public interest. The decision-making process and public sector unions inhibit their work to the point that far too many are kept busy turning a crank that is not attached to anything. I do not believe that the Government of Canada needs 300 organizations. It is long overdue for someone to ask hard questions about government operations. The old public administration model is on life support and now is the time to come forward with big ideas to make government more efficient. For too long, governments have given the appearance of change while standing still.

A good place to start is to ask: “Does the Government of Canada need 300 organizations?” I think not. For example, there are now seven federal government regional agencies. We have reached the point where every postal code in Canada has access to a federal regional development agency. Even only a cursory look at their mandates reveals that much of what they do falls in areas of provincial government responsibilities. I can also easily identify a number of Ottawa-based agencies that should come under review. We need to redirect some of the savings from a smaller and more efficient government to strengthening our national defence. The focus should be on the Arctic, because no one else will look after our economic interest there.

Article content

Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs in response to a fabricated crisis about fentanyl flowing from the north, his desire to crush the Canadian economy and his repeated insult that Canada should become the 51st state are making Canadians mad. But getting mad serves no purpose. The moment calls for decisions to make Canada and the Canadian economy stronger. We need to grab the moment with both hands knowing that political sovereignty and economic strength go hand in hand.

Donald J. Savoie is a professor at Université de Moncton 

Article content