This article is aimed at Canada in general, but parts of it strongly apply to Vancouver and BC.
The antidote to our challenges is to embrace an “abundance” mindset. This implies a political priority to ensure that the essentials for robust social health—such as housing, energy, health care, and transportation—are plentiful and give people options. Systemic reforms must address the housing crisis head-on, significantly boost productivity, and ensure that the basics—crucial for a high-quality life—are within everyone’s reach.
Achieving these outcomes demands leadership and bold action, including the possibility of the federal government devolving taxation powers to provinces in exchange for reforms. Such reforms should aim to eliminate interprovincial trade barriers, clarify jurisdictions, centralize regulatory frameworks, boost competition in Canada’s private sector, revamp land use and municipal governance, and reform the tax code. Furthermore, there’s an urgent need to overhaul public infrastructure procurement and construction practices, where poor state capacity has unnecessarily inflated the cost of building social and physical infrastructure. The challenge we face is not the magnitude of government expenditure but the extent of its overcomplication, overreach, and waste.
https://thehub.ca/2024-03-15/eric-lombardi-canadas-zero-sum-economy/
