It is not as though we really need another Fraser Institute. This one is called the Montreal Economic Institute. It has the temerity to say that it has “ideas for a more prosperous society.” They should prove it. Judging by the news release they sent me a few days ago, it comes across as another “Don’t Think Tank.”
You certainly would not want this think tank to do any thinking for you. This news release is nothing more than whining about the budget offered by the federal government last week. It accuses the federal government of creating irresponsible deficits and doing nothing for productivity. It seems to be nothing other than a back-up chorus for conservative politicians in Ottawa.
I hate using the pandemic as an excuse for anything these days but if you ignore the attempts the current government made to stabilize things during the worst of the pandemic, you are clueless. And the money distributed during the pandemic had nothing to do with inflation. It really was borrowed at a very low rate. It was not just printed. That is a fallacy spread by irresponsible politicians.
What makes the news release ridiculous is the statement in it saying “The growth of debt in recent years has drastically reduced our ability to deal with crises.” That is an ignorant statement considering the cost of bringing our country through the worst of the pandemic. And what is particularly annoying is that our antiquated constitution stood in the way of the federal government really stepping in to help fight the needs across the country.
What we really need to reduce now is our world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Instead, the Montreal office of this think tank is concerned about our productivity. And who quotes productivity without telling you the methodology involved and the time periods. What I will never understand is quoting supposed productivity comparisons 25 years in the future.
All I know about productivity is from sitting on the management committee of a Canadian subsidiary of a U.S. company. Our productivity measurements were always better than the U.S. figures when you translated dollars and overheads.
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