Canada needs a dose of economic realpolitik
Mark Wiseman is a Canadian investment manager and business executive serving as a senior adviser to Lazard Ltd., Boston Consulting Group and Hillhouse Capital, and the chair of Alberta Investment Management Corp. He was formerly the chief executive officer of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and a senior managing director at BlackRock and chairman of its global investment committee.
First, we should be welcoming those displaced by this conflict to Canada as quickly as possible. Not only is it the right thing to do, it also will bring incredible long-term benefits to our economy. We must move quickly and decisively to bring talent to our county instead of muddling through bureaucracy while others attract it. To start, let’s grant any multinational that wishes to relocate Ukrainian and Russian employees automatic work visas, so they can instantly add to our GDP and pay taxes to Canadian governments.
Experts are sounding the alarms, especially over global wheat supplies, of which Ukraine produces 8 per cent. With Russian forces prohibiting access to key shipping ports at the Black Sea and with Russia producing more than 18 per cent of global wheat exports themselves, the danger is very real. Now, as markets look to our farmers to supply them with wheat amid shortages and unprecedentedly high prices, we should help Canadian farmers capitalize. The government must work with the chemical industry to ensure it can get the potash and nitrogen it needs, so we can feed ourselves and our allies while bolstering our agriculture sector.
The Saudis and Middle Eastern oil producers are hesitant to let the shackles off their production to lower prices at the pump without concessions from the U.S. on Iran and other issues. And Venezuela, after years of ostracization, is exploiting the courtship, lobbying to lift the sanctions imposed on the diabolical Maduro regime.
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