Former Environment Canada boss calls for more balanced economy

OTTAWA – The former boss at Environment Canada is casting doubt on rosy economic projections for the country that put too much emphasis on exploitation of the oilsands and other natural resources.

In an opinion piece submitted to Postmedia News, Environment Canada’s former deputy minister Paul Boothe took aim at recent economic forecasts, including an OECD projection that Canada would lead the G7 countries in growth over the next 50 years.

“Fifty-year forecasts are simply a pile of assumptions,” wrote Boothe, an economist who left the government in July to accept a position as a director of a policy centre at the University of Western Ontario’s Ivey Business School. “Was the news of this forecast greeted with appropriate skepticism? No, economic commentators clucked approvingly.”

Boothe also questioned a separate study by Deloitte, a financial consulting firm, that suggested the oilsands could be the growth engine of the Canadian economy for the next few decades.

“Here, one of the authors scaled the hyperbolic heights to declare the oilsands the nation-building equivalent of (former prime minister) Sir John A. Macdonald’s CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway). A careful reading of the report revealed no analysis to support this claim.”

Before Boothe left Environment Canada, the Harper government introduced major changes to environmental laws last spring that reduced federal oversight on some projects as part of what it described as “responsible resource development.” The government has also launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign that promotes Canada’s natural resources and the recent reforms.

Boothe, a veteran public servant who was also an economics professor at the University of Alberta, said in his article that some economists making growth projections were failing to factor in costs related to workers and families being forced to move across the country in search of work as a result of boom and bust cycles.

But he said there were ways to avoid repeating the boom-and-bust errors of the past by recognizing the volatility of relying on natural resources for growth.

“We can choose not to put all of our economic eggs in the natural resource basket,” wrote Boothe. “Developing our natural resources in an environmentally and socially sustainable way makes good sense. Betting the farm on them does not.”

He said a “balanced” approach to economic growth should include activities such as manufacturing to promote stability.

“Strong, stable economies don’t just magically appear on the local fair grounds,” wrote Boothe. “They are the product of good public policy and hard work by businesses in all sectors. Perhaps this time, some Canadians will choose to keep both feet on the ground and pass on the roller coaster ride.”

Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Mike De Souza