{"id":257300,"date":"2025-11-02T19:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T19:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/257300\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T19:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T19:45:08","slug":"is-canada-a-serious-country-the-coming-budget-will-tell-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/257300\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Canada a serious country? The coming budget will tell us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney jokes with Minister of Finance and National Revenue Francois-Philippe Champagne at a community centre in Ottawa on Oct. 10.Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

John Turley-Ewart is a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail, a regulatory compliance consultant and a Canadian banking historian.<\/p>\n

If anyone doubted that their financial prospects hang in the balance with Tuesday\u2019s federal budget, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem put such doubts to rest on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Mr. Macklem cut the bank\u2019s policy rate from 2.50 to 2.25 per cent last week. He also signalled<\/a> that more cuts are unlikely. <\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t believe they will solve our low productivity problem, which lags<\/a> most other advanced economies and, if boosted, could help mitigate the effect of President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs on our economy. Should governments and businesses fail to boost productivity, suggests<\/a> Mr. Macklem, \u201cour standard of living as a country \u2026 is going to be lower than it otherwise would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

In plain terms, Canada\u2019s economy is enduring \u201cstructural changes\u201d that are already turning Canada into America\u2019s poor cousin. <\/p>\n

Carney says he\u2019s prepared to fight an election campaign if budget doesn\u2019t pass<\/a><\/p>\n

The Liberals are set to unveil their new budget. Send in your questions for our experts<\/a><\/p>\n

Stomping our skates on the ice, flapping our elbows up then down while appealing for tariff justice from the U.S. has become a distraction. The federal budget is an opportunity to focus on transforming the economy by incentivizing productivity \u2013 something Canadians control.<\/p>\n

We know what failure to do this looks like. Ryan Williams, an entrepreneur, former member of Parliament and Fellow of the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, recently appeared before the House of Commons standing committee on science and research. His testimony<\/a> was startling.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s digital economy \u201cis booming,\u201d he said, generating more than $100-billion in revenue a year. We own little of it. Mr. Williams points out that \u201c87 per cent of our innovation is foreign owned\u201d and that Canadian-controlled venture funding for research and development is a relative pittance. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2025, U.S. startups raised US$91.5-billion in venture funding\u201d while Canada has generated $920-million, yet, as Mr. Williams highlights, \u201c80 per cent of that was U.S.-controlled.\u201d<\/p>\n

We nurture talent that generates productivity-enhancing intellectual property and largely ignore it, leaving U.S. entrepreneurs and others to profit from our indifference while our wages and living standards whither. <\/p>\n

Canadians should know how this plays out in practice. Consider the example of Ucore Rare Metals Inc., reported<\/a> on last week in The Wall Street Journal. The Canadian company based in Bedford, N.S., received US$18-million from the Pentagon to \u201cbuild its first commercial plant in Louisiana, which will turn raw rare earths into oxides used by many industries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ucore\u2019s CEO, Pat Ryan, was quoted saying, \u201cWe\u2019re looking at this as a Manhattan Project. You have got to move quickly to get this job done.\u201d The Louisiana plant is expected to be operational next year. Ucore\u2019s shares are up 700 per cent.<\/p>\n

Such efforts by the U.S. government involve partnerships with private enterprise such as America\u2019s largest bank, JPMorgan, which launched<\/a> a US$1.5-trillion strategic-industries investment fund. It will \u201cmake direct equity and venture-capital investments of up to $US10-billion to help select companies primarily in the United States enhance their growth, spur innovation and accelerate strategic manufacturing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fund may play a role in another much larger U.S. government effort that leverages Canadian expertise and critical minerals \u2013 the US$80-billion deal<\/a> penned last week with Canadian companies Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. and Cameco Corp to build eight large nuclear reactors through Westinghouse Electric Co.<\/p>\n

This is what Canada is competing against.<\/p>\n

While Canadian companies are securing tangible commitments from the U.S. government and investors, Ottawa is signing international agreements to open new markets for Canadian critical minerals that will materialize in some distant future. This is laudable, yet overdue.<\/p>\n

Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said<\/a> last week that Canada would lead a new G7 critical-minerals pact that would guarantee markets and deliver stable returns using price floors as well as stockpiling to combat China weaponizing its dominance in such minerals.<\/p>\n

In Ontario, Premier Doug Ford just signed an important partnership deal with the Webequie First Nation. The Webequie are completing the environmental assessment for the supply road to the province\u2019s critical-mineral-rich Ring of Fire. The assessment is due this January. Mr. Ford wants the road construction to begin in the coming spring.<\/p>\n

That is unlikely. Regardless of the environmental assessment by the Webequie, Ottawa will conduct its own review using Canada\u2019s Impact Assessment Act, delaying road construction, critical-mineral mining, and the 70,000 jobs that Mr. Ford says the project will generate atop the $22-billion it would add to the country\u2019s economy. It\u2019s time for Mr. Carney to give his \u201cbuild, baby, build\u201d election slogan meaning.<\/p>\n

Today, Canada is too much like The Bay in a Costco world. Tomorrow\u2019s budget should change that for everyone\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney jokes with Minister of Finance and National Revenue Francois-Philippe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-257300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}