by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament
Pickering-Scarborough East
Success in Canada is increasingly a product of inheritance and connections rather than merit. Throughout Canada’s history, a humble yet profound dream has resonated: the belief that through diligent, honest work, one could secure a decent living and ensure a brighter future for one’s children.
In the last few years, however this dream has rapidly evaporated for countless young and new Canadians who find themselves on the wrong side of a job market and facing a housing crisis that saw prices nearly double between 2015 and 2022. Rents also exploded by over 11 percent in 2023, continuing a decade-long trend of growth at twice the rate of inflation.
In the same timeframe, Canada’s real GDP per capita, a measure of economic activity per individual, has barely budged—and may be lower at the end of 2024 than in 2015.This means that Canada has the poorest performance in the G7 and the second lowest among 35 OECD “wealthy” countries. Grimly, in 2022 the OECD predicted a generation-long stagnation, estimating this country would have the slowest per capita growth rate of members through 2060.
Canada now faces a fast growing divide as society, which is basically segregated into two distinct classes: the affluent, wealth and property-owning class with considerable political and economic influence, and a new class of permanent tenants, for whom homeownership and long-term economic progress are out of reach.
The malaise plaguing Canada’s economy stems from a deep-rooted socioeconomic shift that has simmered for decades. It is reminiscent of a historically long past era that has unfortunately been revived in a new scenario.
While political discourse today is mired in the dichotomy of progressivism versus conservatism, with the so-called political correctness on center stage, the nation is actually confronted by challenges that are more archaic savor and far more insidious in nature. The malaise is akin to a resurgence of the black plague.
Unlike the “deja vue” of historical feudalism, where monarchs and the privileged nobility subjugated the masses through land ownership and serfdom, today’s society in-the-making operates through covert manipulations of regulatory frameworks and economic policy by a new class of aristocrats with the same goal.
The chasm between property owners and everyone else left behind by the housing crisis, has been driven by the actions of affluent and well-connected residents and major landholders and their dutiful servants.
These interests have exerted their significant political influence over local and provincial land-use policies and usurped property rights for decades. Their sway over policy via deep political relationships has resulted in stringent growth regulations, rendering new housing development slow, prohibitively expensive, and dominated by big businesses.
Consequently, the housing market has become increasingly inaccessible for younger and newer Canadians, furthering the growing chasm between owners and a burgeoning class of permanent tenants.
While provincial and local governments throttle supply, the federal government’s recent management of immigration (despite a recent shift in policy) has dramatically boosted demand for housing and accelerated cost of rents.
The last two years have seen an unplanned entry of over a million net temporary residents, particularly students, who have been exploited in low-wage work and by fraudulent educational institutions. The policies that led to this outcome were strongly advocated by influential business interests as a solution to labour shortages. The influx created a pool of low-wage labour for them to draw on, enabling them to forgo wage increases and investments in improved workforce productivity. While this benefits these businesses, it harms existing workers, undermines confidence in the immigration system, and hinders economic progress of the nation.
The intersection of economic and political power, which was common in feudal systems, is highlighted by the increasing dominance of political dynasties like those represented by Justin Trudeau, Doug Ford, Bryan Mulroney, Olivia Chow (Layton family) and many more that manifest the emerging typical new feudal type structure of Canadian society. Doug Ford’s recent Greenbelt scandal, involving an opaque regulatory decision that conveniently favoured properties of a well-connected billionaire family is a blatant example of the entanglement. Their actions created an $8.3 billion dollar land value uplift, and while reversed due to public outcry, it demonstrates how politicians and economic winners covertly use the regulatory system against public interest.
This dark economic shift extends beyond the housing sector, permeating across Canada’s economy in areas such as finance, wealth management, insurance, telecom, agriculture, grocery, natural resources, public service and media. A select group of billionaires, multimillionaires, and their agents who use their extensive networks, associations, relationships, philanthropy, and political influence to gain regulatory favour hold significant interests in too many areas of our national wealth.
This trend now well entrenched is facilitated by the growing complexity of technological society and our governing bureaucracy’s reflexive reliance on increased regulation to superficially “fix” complex problems. It overlooks the need for a systemic understanding of issues and the political execution of challenging reforms that would produce better results. The outcome is a regulatory system developed in collaboration with existing economic winners that justify new rules as “in the public interest” but instead create barriers to entry for competition.
This process has far-reaching effects on the Canadian economy. It has led to an environment that is counterproductive to innovation, equitable growth, investment, and our long-term prosperity. It basically undermines merit based employment.
Canada’s innovation and productivity hurdles, often attributed to a “conservative business culture,” are more accurately the result of decisions by rational actors in sectors insulated from competition, such as the public service.
Inter-provincial trade barriers that exist due largely to the influence of special interest groups, are estimated to raise the cost of goods by seven percent, impeding our economy’s full potential. Thus, Canada’s challenges in productivity and investment are not a result of a “conservative business mindset,” but rather a consequence of rational choices in private industry dominated by economic fiefdoms awarded by the subservient government.
Our present faltering economy, besieged by escalating housing costs and a lethargic private sector, is accompanied by an eroding standard of living. In Toronto and Vancouver, our most productive cities, exorbitant housing costs fueled by crippling growth restrictions are severely hampering labour mobility. This has profound repercussions for national wealth and our collective prosperity. Canada’s gradual shift towards a new dark ages marks a fundamental departure from the liberal democratic system that once fostered prosperity and opportunity through economic freedom and effective governance.
This transition, characterized by an increasingly burdensome regulatory landscape ostensibly for public benefit, paradoxically shields a new aristocracy and their servants and jeopardizes our socioeconomic vitality.
The quintessential belief that hard work leads to a good life, including homeownership, is faltering as family wealth evolves from helpful to indispensable for the next generations’ prosperity. Like a dark past era, success in Canada is increasingly a product of inheritance and connections rather than merit, challenging a deep national myth that Canada is a free nation of free people.
It requires a deep re-evaluation of our systems and commitment to substantive reforms aimed at rejuvenating the Canadian dream and upholding our core values as a nation.
What do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment