John Robson: Carney’s investment summit is all talk, no action

So there was this giant Toronto “investment summit” gabfest that was classic Mark Carney. And I don’t mean it in a good way.

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Yes, we must do better economically. Growth is anemic, per capita income stagnant, productivity weak, housing a dream and affordability a nightmare. But the solution is prosaic: lower taxes, less regulation, more certainty. Whereas Carney is grandiose, meddlesome and detail-averse.

In July he answered a question on military procurement with “I just got here.” But he didn’t. He’s been prime minister for a year and a half, burbling about building at speeds not seen in generations without any sense of urgency or practical touch.

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As Bank of England governor he was nicknamed “the unreliable boyfriend” for flip-flopping on interest rates, his one important real-world grubby-detail responsibility. As United Nations special envoy on climate action and finance, he exchanged Davosian cliches with his jet-set peers about transformation, leverage and catalytics. But all he did was create the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, which promptly collapsed. He’s a blatherskite.

Thus he told summit attendees, “The world is looking at Canada differently. And I suggest we should look at ourselves differently too.” So why bring them to hear from us, not the reverse? It drives me nuts that he praises “buying Canadian and travelling in Canada” on returning from a lavish foreign vacation. But the big problem is the thinking behind how he talks.

Bringing a bunch of rich globalist insiders to Toronto to confer in their high tower while we peasants gape outside is exactly what the economy doesn’t require. And here the medium is the message.

If markets worked as Adam Smith or Ronald Reagan thought, the last thing anyone would want or need is government advertising investment opportunities. The usual leftists are yapping the usual stuff about selling out to U.S. President Donald Trump’s cronies and “basically giving away massive parts of our public services to American CEOs.” But as usual they’ve totally missed the point.

This summit isn’t capitalism. It’s state capitalism. Which never works. As the Post’s John Ivison wrote, Canada is a hotbed of strikes, which the government keeps quashing. And a regime with a generous right to strike until the PM says no brings certainty to no one, from unions to capitalists.

Facing a debt morass, Carney holds meandering budget consultations that shun coherent principle for a wish-list subject to PMO favouritism not stable rules. At the languid pace at which the Major Projects Office accomplishes nothing.

Thus our hapless industry minister said of the summit, “I’m confident that we can get to MOUs, so intent of investment.” They love memoranda of understanding, which are exactly like agreements without the agreement. Hence: “This fall we will begin intense discussions with the European Union … to build a much stronger and deeper economic and security partnership.” Not conclude discussions. Not reach a deal. Just words about words.

Which again is typical Carney, talking big and acting little. As the Globe and Mail wrote, “Behind the scenes, the summit’s organizers have managed expectations, describing the event as a starting point.” And ABC reported, “A Canadian official … cautioned that the summit is not expected to produce a rush of deals this week, with the most significant results likely to emerge over the next 12 to 18 months.” Unless they don’t. And our hapless energy minister called the dangled possible projects “conversation starters.” For what? More talk?

As the head of one massive Canadian public-sector pension fund said, “The conference is a great start; it’s not the end game.… Ultimately, our hope is that it’s a catalyst for future action and investments in the weeks, months and years to come.” Catalyst. Leverage. Transformation. Lather, blather and repeat.

At a summit side gathering by an American think-tank our hapless finance minister said, “What we need to do now is to move from intention to investment, and (from) investment to projects.” Oh. Just that? Well, the chair of “the investment attraction agency for the Greater Toronto region” wrote, “As much as hosting this summit matters, what comes next matters more.” Yes. And what will come next?

More backroom pseudo-deal making. Carney fancies himself a master of the art of the deal, so we won’t get a stable, open investment environment. We’ll get PMO favouritism appealing to investors from the United Arab Emirates or Communist China … until they realize he doesn’t do stuff.

Carney bloviates, meets, meets and bloviates. After 16 months spewing globe-trotting carbon pitching Canada as an investment destination here we go again. Yet while we’re meant to be elbowing the U.S. in the head, with eight times our population they have 13 times our GDP because they’re a land of opportunity and we’re smug micromanagers.

This investment summit will make things worse here, not better, swaddled in soothing, puffy rhetoric. Classic Carney.

National Post

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