
Refocusing the debate on industrial policy
The debate on industrial policy should not be about the amount of government intervention in the economy we need, but rather how effective that intervention is.
The debate on industrial policy should not be about the amount of government intervention in the economy we need, but rather how effective that intervention is.
Canada cannot avoid the coming economic slowdown any more than we could have avoided the global pandemic. The risks remain enormous, and the government’s fiscal firepower is not what it was three years ago.
Economic and fiscal outlooks always look better down the road until they don’t. Nobody expected inflation to rise as quickly as it did.
Constantly arguing that we have less and less in common will lead to a heap of ruins.
We used to have election campaigns to guide governing mandates. Too often, we now witness a large share of governing mandates only serving as a set-up for the next election campaign. We used to campaign to govern and now we govern to campaign.
When and how central banks will start winding down this unprecedented accommodative monetary support has become a central question. It comes with huge implications for fiscal policy but more importantly for consumers (mortgages, prices) and taxpayers (deficit financing).
It’s about time we substitute our incremental approach to innovation mostly made of ill-targeted programs that have yielded sub-par outcomes in the past for a higher risk, higher reward approach.
Governing is about making choices, but if this budget can be defined as anything it is everything. No one has been left out.