The predictable debate around its climate action plan update points to a larger issue facing B.C. and the rest of the country: the need for national strategies to address critical economic challenges that have more than regional interests.
While the Liberal government’s decision in its updated plan to include no carbon tax increase above the current $30 per tonne has been criticized as an abdication of climate change leadership, it is far more pragmatic than negligent. Politics in the leadup to the 2017 provincial election aside, B.C. needs to see the federal climate action roadmap before it can institute policies that will have wide-ranging economic implications.
Other issues needing a similar big-picture approach in Canada include capital markets regulation, internal free trade and energy development.
Fortunately, some progress is being made. In July, the federal minister of finance and the ministers responsible for capital markets regulation in B.C., Ontario, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Yukon chose the first board of directors for the Capital Markets Regulatory Authority. The CMRA, which will be the single regulator for securities markets in the provinces that have signed on to the new Co-operative Capital Markets Regulatory System, is now searching for its first CEO.
That co-operative approach will help eliminate at least some of the red tape and duplication for companies seeking to raise venture capital in more than one Canadian province.
Efforts to improve internal free trade in Canada, meanwhile, are at least moving beyond lip service. However, little progress has been made in drafting a national energy policy to maximize the economic yield from the country’s energy riches.
Canada is a huge geographic entity with a relatively small population. For it to excel domestically and in the wider world, global perspectives and international intelligence need to replace parochial thinking.
Patchwork approaches to complex issues like climate change might generate short-term political mileage but few, if any, lasting solutions.
