Bronwyn Eyre is a senior fellow with MEI. She was the former Saskatchewan Minister of Justice and Attorney General and Minister of Energy. Give the highest-priority to finance. That was Queen Elizabeth I’s top rule, of her famous “nine principles of power.”Aside from “never marry” — she was the “Virgin Queen” after all — QEI’s rules are as relevant today as they were 500 years ago. Pick wise counsellors. Avoid war. Beware new-fangled innovation for the sake of it. Improve the usefulness of existing institutions. Before her reign began in 1558, modern ledger accounting had just come into use. Investment banks were in their infancy, and Britain was still partly reliant on barter. All the more astounding, then, that Elizabeth prioritized “opening opportunities to create wealth.”.BORG: Canadians told to cut carbon while COP30 delegates emit a Canadian town’s worth of co₂.What would she make of Canada’s stultified wealth creation and shameless spending? Tariffs turmoil aside, daily debt-building body-blows are so massive, they’ve become almost abstract. If this Renaissance queen knew it “it’s the economy, stupid,” why do we still not get it?In the last month alone, Canadians learned that:The Canada Revenue Agency spent $190 million on “dysfunctional call centres.” The federal government has attempted to block disclosure of the $15 billion in subsidy agreements with Stellantis — after the automaker announced it was relocating Jeep production to the US, along with 3,000 jobs. Since 2003, Canada has spent $755 million on sustainable development aid to China.A 2021 $60 million subsidy program to promote United Nations policies has had “inconsistent tracking outcomes.”A globe-trotting “tick box exercise” for federal managers to expand the federal Climate Financing Program — when Justin Trudeau was trying to gain a seat on the UN Security Council — cost taxpayers $6.2 billion.The 2019 federal tree-planting scheme, cut in the recent federal budget, cost $268 million. These were all reported by the intrepid Blacklock’s Reporter, not the evening news. .Something’s going to breakHeading into the federal budget, the estimated deficit was 60% over target, at $68.5 billion. Experts, correctly, pegged it closer to $80 billion. “Something’s going to break,” budget officer Jason Jacques told the Senate Finance Committee in October. “It’s unsustainable.” Cue the usual suspects who, sensing pre-Budget stormy waters, called for cuts — not to wasteful spending, but to old age security. Said founder of Generation Squeeze, Paul Kershaw: “Can we ask those who are financially secure to take smaller subsidies in retirement, so savings can be repurposed to help our kids and grandkids?”Don’t. You. Dare. The way the feds spend, they can leave Canadian seniors alone. .RUBENSTEIN: Canada eagerly embraces a genocide double standard.To wit, as Elizabeth I might say, some read-them-and-weep examples: Since 2016, federal DEI grants of some $1 billion have included “cultural vegetables to strengthen food security in equity-deserving communities” and Congolese war veterans. The federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, whose grants cost taxpayers over $1 billion last year, funded “studies about Peruvian rock music, grocery carts, selfies, online Harry Potter fan communities, intersectional piano curriculums, and gender equity bicycles,” according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.A “haphazardly-administered” $1.6 billion for “ecological grief” programs is apparently “insufficient.” $10 billion has been committed to “Jordan’s Principle” initiatives to 2028, while attempts to improve record-keeping transparency have met with allegations of racism.I’ve got lots more..Across government, federal spending on consultants is about $25 billion. In 2023 alone, the federal employment department tripled consultant spending to $311.8 million — and is now hiring again to gain more “in-depth understanding” of its own student-for-hire program. This, as an unused 2018 federal youth volunteerism program has cost $204 million to date.CERB write-offs now total $34 million. COVID-19 ventilators, bought for $1 billion, have been sold for scrap metal. In the $60 million ArriveCan program, significant fraud detection “gaps” remain, while criminal investigations of alleged billing fraud continue across nine federal departments. One IT company, GG Strategies, was awarded more than $92.7 million in contracts. The now-defunct federal “sustainable development” (aka “green slush”) fund, which awarded $135 million in contracts, failed to comply with basic eligibility or conflict of interest requirements. Outcomes, auditors say, were not “monitored, measured, or attributed.” .WHISSELL: A costly WEF-style regime emerges in Canada .And on it goes:The Department of Justice billed $38 million on civil litigation and prosecution of members of the 2022 “Freedom Convoy.” An “easy-to-use,” still incomplete website for federal benefits claims, launched in 2017 for $1.8 billion, has cost $6.6 billion. $197 million has been lost on student loan write-offs, despite interest waivers and generous repayment terms.The Women Entrepreneurship Fund, launched in 2018 for $130 million, hasn’t led to a single start-up. “Open opportunities to create wealth?” If only. Along with reckless, ill-monitored spending, Canada is awash in investment-killing regulations. Unrelenting, ideological anti-fossil fuel pressure on banks alone has impacted M&A, competitiveness, and social mobility. Research and development, productivity, and entrepreneurialism are among the lowest in the G7.We need you, Elizabeth. We need an economic renaissance and a thorough cleansing of the Augean stables. Bronwyn Eyre is a senior fellow with MEI. She was the former Saskatchewan Minister of Justice and Attorney General and Minister of Energy. This column appeared in a modified form in the Toronto Sun.
