Steven Globerman: Morneau slams Trudeau government — then doubles-down on its policies — via financialpost FPComment
Mr. Morneau could also have said that transferring productive resources from the private to the public sector is a prescription for discouraging collective prosperity. But, indulging in yet more unconscious irony, when recalling his proudest policyas minister of finance, he pointed to the Canada Child Benefit and raising the Canada Pension Plan from one-quarter to one-third of recipients’ final pay upon retirement.
Child poverty and climate change are legitimate public policy concerns, but addressing them does little to raise productivity or increase industrial competitiveness. If extensive government regulation and generous income support programs were good ways to promote collective prosperity, Morneau would not have found an audience for his speech lamenting Canada’s growth prospects.
Steven Globerman is a professor emeritus at Western Washington University and senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.