For my first column of the new year, I’ve dipped into my collection of irrational, damaging or downright dumb happenings in 2017.
GMO fears
The year saw major breakthroughs in the use of genetically modified human cells to treat diseases, including retinal dystrophy and blood cancer. Human genetic re-engineering is an emerging science but there has been little public concern.
By contrast, baseless fear mongering by activists opposed to genetically modified organisms has turned GMO food into a public pariah.
In reality, genetically modified foods, such as Canadian canola oil, have been consumed by humans for more than two decades without a single substantiated case of harm.
How can it be that people are OK with GMO being injected directly into our bodies, while eating plants derived from the same technology is feared?
Fish farming
Environmentalists escalated their campaigns to end British Columbia’s important salmon farming industry. Yet virtually all credible scientists, including those with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, have found no evidence that fish farms harm wild salmon.
Even though 70% of salmon consumption comes from farms, the wild population remains under pressure from overfishing. Removing farmed salmon supplies would increase that pressure dramatically.
Pipeline woes
Environmentalists, Indigenous tribes and Quebec politicians united to kill TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline project, which would have moved Canadian oil to eastern refineries and international markets.
Instead, foreign-flagged tankers continue to make their way up the St. Lawrence Seaway and billions of Canadian dollars continue to flow to countries with appalling environmental and human rights records.
Meanwhile, economically beleaguered Alberta continues to help fund Quebec’s annual $10 billion equalization grant.
Fossil fuels
After Prime Minster Justin Trudeau tells Albertans that the fossil fuel industry must be phased out, a 2017 International Energy Agency report predicts daily global oil demand will increase by 10 million barrels to 104 million barrels by 2040.
Meanwhile, Canada pursues unilateral decarbonization, an ideologically driven form of economic hara-kiri that hands the market for our most economically important industry to others.
Ironically, the biggest “other” is the United States, which is expected to supply a substantial portion of the growing global demand despite possessing smaller oil reserves than Canada.
Government benefits
A Fraser Institute report finds that federal, provincial and municipal government employees earn an average of 11% more than comparable private-sector workers whose taxes pay the cost. On top of that, public-sector workers enjoy much more generous pension and retirement benefits.
Taxes
Another Fraser Institute study finds the average Canadian family will pay more than $35,000 in taxes in 2017, more than they spend on housing, food and clothing combined.
However, Trudeau is on track to increase the country’s national debt by more than any other prime minister who didn’t face a world war or major economic recession.
Uncompetitive rates
Personal income tax rate increases lifted top combined federal/provincial rates to more than 50% in seven of 10 provinces, higher than in other developed countries.
While Canadian politicians tout advanced technological innovation as key to our country’s economic future, these tax escalations made Canada uncompetitive in attracting and retaining the best and brightest workers needed to accomplish that.
Then, in the closing days of 2017, U.S. legislators passed a tax bill that further widened the rate gap for highly mobile skilled workers.
Political correctness
In response to challenges Canadian entrepreneurs have long faced in attracting venture capital investment, the federal government announced a new $400 million fund.
Then came an announcement that seemed too farcical to be true. The struggling entrepreneurs the plan is supposed to help will now have to demonstrate how their strategies will “advance the objective of achieving gender balance” in the Canadian startup scene.
Hence, fund allocations were transformed from supporting the highest potential ideas to a $400 million political correctness fund.
Chilling thought
The final weeks of 2017 saw dangerously cold weather in much of Canada and the United States. I can’t help but wonder what all those who advocate replacing fossil fuels with wind and solar are thinking as tens of millions suffer through the deep freeze with only fossil fuels keeping them safe and warm.•
Gwyn Morgan is a retired Canadian business leader who has been a director of five global corporations.
