Define ‘crazy’

Letter to the Orillia Packet & Times

In the latest incarnation of the Harper government’s absurd conviction that it, and it alone, knows what’s best for the Canadian economy comes the statement that regulating greenhouse gases in the oil and gas sector makes for “crazy economic policy.”

Perhaps it depends on the definition of “crazy.” Consider:

• Oil is dirty, and tarsands oil is among the dirtiest in terms of measurable, adverse environmental impact;

• The price of oil is determined by foreign entities who can and will still be viable at $35 per barrel, while tarsands oil is unprofitable at double that amount;

• The pipelines and shipping lanes required to get the tarsands oil to market are likely never to materialize due to rational, well-organized opposition from the Obama administration, First Nations, environmental groups and a growing number of informed, concerned citizens who refuse to sell out future generations and the planet’s health for the sake of a few easy dollars purposed to keep the Conservative government in power;

• Environmental protection standards have been systematically weakened by the Conservative government to pave the way for pipeline expansions and resource exploitation;

• The Harper government has subverted the long-term interests of Canadians (i.e. investing now in the inevitable transition to cleaner and more sustainable forms of energy in favour of the short-term interests of multinational corporations, mostly foreign controlled);

• There is an oversupply of oil on the market due to diminished demand caused partly by cleaner, alternative energy sources and improved technologies, particularly in the auto sector, two areas of economic development where Canada has been denied a leadership role thanks to the Harper government’s disproportionate ($30 billion-plus) subsidy of one industry, oil, at the expense of all others;

• Stephen Harper, supposedly an economist, has ignored the fundamental investment principle of portfolio diversification, instead putting all of Canada’s investment eggs in the Alberta tarsands basket;

• Canada is in the dubious position of having the worst record in the industrialized world on combating the causes of climate change, this despite the record costs of extreme weather events in Alberta, Ontario and on both coasts since 2012.

There is more to recount here, but in the not-too-distant future, as the perils of an economy overly dependent on a single commodity of diminishing merit become apparent, let us recall the position of this same Conservative government in 2009, when it boasted of Canada’s immunity to the global recession already setting in. Oblivious then, oblivious now.

Crazy? Right word. Misdirected.

Mike Shillolo

Orillia