Prime Minister Mark Carney’s main focus will be on project development as he sits down with provincial and territorial premiers this week.
Carney told CBC’s Power & Politics in an exclusive interview last week that “major projects” will be his main agenda item for Monday’s meeting.
“We need to move on these nation-building projects. So projects that bring Canada together, projects that diversify our economy, projects that help us export to new markets and really move this economy forward,” Carney told host David Cochrane.
“The ask of provinces, the ask of the private sector is: Which projects do you have that reach those criteria? What we’re going to do is fast-track the approval, truly fast-track the approval, of those projects.”
Weird about how all these “nation builing” projects are only about resource extraction. Nothing about high speed rail, national broad band, permanent roads and bridges to the North, or anything about actually helping move or connect across Canada.
Because we are considered a resource nation. Whether you agree with that or not, it is how the world sees us.
It’s more about how we see ourselves. Do we build strong services and utilities for our own population, or do we keep shoveling money and opportunity to our incumbents?
We used to have a pretty strong telecom industry. We had decent manufacturing and ship building, if you go far enough back. If there’s decent infrastructure, tax codes, and investment incentives maybe we could have those again.
All true, but the infrastructure we used to have is mostly gone and to start over would entail spending billions. It seems Carney prefers to use what we’ve got, along with ideas already in a development/funding stage, to move us forward.
That’s not nation building, though. “Be only as others see you” is pretty toxic advice at any level.
It feels like Carney is interpreting his mandate as reinforcing the status quo when it comes to winners and losers in the current economy.
When his housing minister was asked if house prices need to come down, he replied:
“No. I think that we need to deliver more supply, make sure the market is stable. It’s a huge part of our economy,” said Robertson on his way to the first meeting of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new cabinet
So they are planning to maintain current prices, but there may be more choice, and they are promising to build some affordable housing (for sale? Rent? Who runs it? How affordable will it be?).
Carney has not publically agreed with Robertson. Never mind he had a spotty record while mayor of Vancouver.
When asked, Carney did not disagree with Robertson either. The Walrus has a really interesting analysis of Carneys explanation.
I would summarize it as “young Canadians may find it easier to buy houses over time” - but that doesn’t mean soon. Nor does it mean they intend to push market prices down, rather they may be trying to stabilize market prices and hope salaries catch up, thanks to inflation.
I believe we’ve discussed this a few times, and I think we’ve drawn different conclusions from similar evidence.
Suffice to say: I really hope Canadians see a substantial improvement in housing costs before the next election.
If I was Carney, I would sooo troll Trump and constantly say in interviews, newspapers and on TV that the United States should become the 11th province.
