The entire point of a federation is to have a mutually beneficial relationship between relatively autonomous provinces. The central government is expected to stick to interprovincial and international issues, while provincial governments are supposed to be left to manage their own affairs. In Canada, that relationship has been turned on its head.The federal government has inserted itself into provincial and even municipal jurisdictions, while it has refused to assert its genuine authority in facilitating interprovincial infrastructure and trade. This has led to a lopsided federation where provincial leaders are at each other’s throats while the federal government milks the division for political benefit.Prime Minister Mark Carney is trying to play both sides. While he claims he wants to enable interprovincial energy infrastructure in the national interest (notice, he refuses to use the word 'pipeline,') he has granted a false authority to provincial governments and indigenous groups to veto projects. Carney has said nothing will happen in Canada without a national consensus between all the provinces and indigenous groups. In other words, nothing will happen in Canada..Canada has already been an investment pariah, as hundreds of billions of dollars worth of energy projects died in the planning stages due to Justin Trudeau’s regulatory scheme. While the world remains hungry for Canada’s resources and energy products, investors won’t sink a penny into a country that won’t guarantee project approval and with a history of pulling the rug out from under other investments. Investors need confidence that projects will be approved and Mark Carney simply isn’t offering that.Meanwhile, federal government spending remains out of control due to overreach. The federal government is pouring funds into pharmacare, childcare, dental care and housing despite none of those things being under federal jurisdiction. They then task the provinces to administer those programs, while handcuffing them through regulations. It’s a cynical political tactic which makes the federal government look like Santa Claus while local levels of government look like grinches when they can’t effectively deliver the services the federal government has dumped upon them..For example, under the original Canada Health Act, the federal government is supposed to cover 50% of the costs of healthcare provision. Currently, it transfers just over 20% of the costs. Meanwhile though, the federal government strictly enforces the Health Act regulations which prohibit private provision of health care options along with other micromanaging clauses that inhibit provinces from trying innovative healthcare solutions. The provinces get stuck with the bill but lack the ability to make meaningful changes to the provision structure. Due to this imbalance, access to healthcare is hitting crisis levels in every province in the country despite costs constantly rising..Carney is supposed to be the fiscal wizard. He is supposed to be the man to bring leadership and sense to Canada’s economic planning. So far, he has proven to be nothing but an utterer of weasel words.Any mention of getting projects done aways comes with a caveat.Consensus should be aspirational, but it can’t be a dealbreaker. It’s an impossible goal and Carney knows it. He is no less in love with the fantasy than Trudeau was, that a magical energy source will appear and replace oil and gas if only we could hinder oil and gas development enough. He is an ideologue rather than a pragmatic nation builder and we will pay a terrible price for it.While new spending announcements come in billions weekly, no talk of spending cuts follow. Just paying the interest on the national debt today costs as much as the GST raises every year. Where will the money come from for Carney’s plans? .The West is already being milked dry. Equalization and civil service hiring is concentrating wealth in central Canada while the ability for the West to increase its earnings Is being handicapped.We no longer need to ask ourselves why we should leave the federation. The answer is clear. We must be asking why we should stay and the answers to that question are hard to find. If the federal government won't serve the interests of the nation as a whole and it's every province for itself, what’s the point of a federation?
