Jackson Doughart: Alberta and Saskatchewan aren’t the only provinces that need re-engagement from Laurentian Canada
We hear plenty these days about Ottawa’s need to focus on the “regions.” Political scientist Donald Savoie has dubbed the frontier beyond Ontario and Quebec “the outer Canadas,” forgotten by our national elites — something aggrieved provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan would agree with.
The Maritimes are also not as small as imagined. Yes, we are technically three provinces, but ones with very close cultural ties, arguably far closer than any other neighbouring provinces. Put our populations together and the Maritimes would not be a rump of quaint villages, but the fifth-largest sub-national formation in the country, ahead of Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
The only way out of this mess is economic growth, something we don’t see with any consistency. From 2000 to 2018, our GDP grew on average two per cent per year, compared with the national 3.2 per cent. Despite labour shortages, we still have high provincial unemployment rates relative to the rest of Canada. The upshot is this: To finance the great expectations of our welfare state, we need to either change the expectations or perform at least as well as the rest of the country.
Without a higher rate of investment in growing businesses, we won’t have the economy to support a good quality of life. Private-sector spending on new technology and equipment are investments that will produce more and better employment, not to mention higher productivity and public revenues.
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