Fall economic statement falls short

As we anticipated the Nov. 21 fall economic statement, Greens set out our hopes and reasonable expectations. Even with the advance warnings that the FES was going to be constrained by a lack of resources, focusing on the crisis of affordability, we had expected more. We set out the progress that could be made for fiscal health and affordability with Green scissors. Looking for places to cut spending in ways that protect the climate, the list is long. Topping the list is cancelling the Trans Mountain expansion pipeline, with costs heading towards the $31-billion mark. The government could also fulfil the long stale-dated promise to end the billions of dollars in subsidies to fossil fuels. These subsidies are now camouflaged as climate solutions such as “carbon capture and storage.” A recent article in Bloomberg examined the technology’s sorry record: “But what’s happening with prior build-out contradicts the forecasters’ increasingly hopeful reliance on CCS as a climate tool? A new Bloomberg Green investigation reveals that the world’s largest carbon capture plant, built in Texas by Occidental Petroleum Corp., never operated at more than a third of its capacity in more than a decade of operation.” Similarly, the government should cancel federal funds to so-called “small modular reactors,” an over-marketed non-solution to climate change. No such reactors are producing commercial electricity anywhere on Earth. The farthest along in the United States, planned for Idaho Falls, was recently cancelled. Another place to cut is consulting firms. I recommend to all MPs a stellar exposé of the world’s most powerful global consulting firm, McKinsey and Company. The book, When McKinsey Comes to Town, by New York Times journalists Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe, is a deeply shocking piece of work. Nobel Prize-winning American economist Joseph Stiglitz had this to say after reading it: "Bogdanich and Forsythe show how McKinsey, rather than optimizing social welfare, optimizes corporate profits and greed. In doing so, the firm has become a super spreader of corporate misdeed and contributed to America’s growing inequality problem. Hypocrisy, avarice, ridiculous power points, aiding and abetting the world's polluters and drug companies. Every page made my blood boil as I read about McKinsey's flawed reasoning and the vast profits made from ethically dubious work for governments, polluting companies and big pharma." McKinsey received $2.2-million over nine years from the Harper administration. Under the Trudeau Liberals, the amount has ballooned to over $100-million. We will need to rebuild what was once a brilliant and much envied civil service to ensure that governments now and into the future do not outsource key policy work. As we save funds through eliminating perverse subsidies and spending on consultants, we can also expand sources of revenue to reduce the obscene gap between Canada’s richest and poorest families. We need a wealth tax. We must also apply an excess profits tax on the fossil fuel industry. Mike Morrice, Green MP for Kitchener Centre, asked Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland immediately after her Nov. 21 speech, “ needs to know that oil and gas companies are gouging Canadians at the pumps, as $0.47 of every dollar of inflation is from corporate profits. Why would they not apply the Canada recovery dividend, which the government already did to banks and life insurance, to big oil in the fall economic statement?" The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates Morrice’s motion 92 for such an excess profits tax on oil would generate more than $4-billion. With funds from cutting perverse spending and redistributing taxes to wealth and excess profits, we could meet urgent needs in our society. While the FES acknowledges food prices remain stubbornly high, it misses the opportunity to ensure our children are not trying to learn on an empty stomach. There is nothing in the FES to provide healthy food to children in school. Shockingly, people with disabilities still wait for the long-promised disability benefit. A Disability Emergency Response Benefit to end legislated poverty for people with disabilities is urgently needed. Reasonable announcements to expand and continue government climate programs were missing in the FES. The Greener Homes Grant, a successful program reducing greenhouse gas emissions from home heating and cooling, is nearly exhausted. Surely the FES could have at least given a signal that homeowners can expect it to be renewed. We also urgently need investments in climate-resilient infrastructure, particularly in the territories, where gaps were so painfully clear in this summer’s evacuations due to wildfires. Across Canada, we need to invest in expanding the electricity grid east-west and north-south such as by implementing projects like the Kivalliq hydro-fibre link. Fighting for the climate and affordability are not competing goals. The Liberals must not allow Conservative sloganeering to drive their policies. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May represents Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C. The Hill Times