HEWERS OF WOOD REDUX

I am re-visiting one of my favourite hobbyhorses: Canada’s utter lack of an industrial policy. Fear of stuff like “too much government” which dominates the American psyche, is not absent in this country, presumably a “liberal” democracy where we all understand government’s role in making life better for everyone. Enough pomposity. We enjoy congratulating ourselves about how much more socially conscious and caring we are than our neighbours, what with (notwithstanding Danny Williams) Health Care and government participation in enterprise.

In the final analysis, Adam Smith’s Hidden Hand dominates.The market, if left to its own devices, will be self-regulating and will take the path best for everyone. For which we can thank that Ayn Rand devotee, Alan Greenspan, whose flawed policies help precipitate the worst financial crisis since 1929.

The latest stab in the economic back comes from the players in the Oil Sands. An announcement from one of them that it will not spend millions on an upgrader, but will join others in the oil sands “play” in exporting raw bitumen to feed the refineries of the U.S. They say it is where the profit is. That’s true. And if your entire raison d’etre is:”show me the money” you will act for short term gain. The entire notion of “good corporate citizenship” is another of those sanctimonious clichés that business trots out for its own aggrandizement. But when push comes to shove, they go to where the money is.

It is a few years ago since I wrote: “When I heard that Dick Cheney was coming to meet with Ralph Klein, my first thought was about mustard.” I knew then, and so should every thinking Canadian have known, that what would follow the meeting would be some kind of scheme for America to get its hands on our oil resources. Even then there was new technology to allow the pipeline to send “slurry” to refineries in the U.S. That slurry is how to semi-liquefy the bitumen so it can be sent by pipeline. Destination: U.S. refineries.

Now it will be a fact. In spite of Alberta’s wish to create more jobs in refining, they will lose. It all comes back to the “mustard” quote. Saskatchewan is the world’s largest single producers of mustard seed. How much mustard diodes it produce? Zilch!

Where are our lily-livered politicians? Where are they when on the one hand we are fighting an absurd “buy American” policy which would hurt what remains of our industry, and on the other hand sitting silent while resources are exported in their rawest form – a policy which denies us thousands of jobs, jobs that are created by value-added production?

All of this is so old it is boring. We will not, as long as we seem to have unlimited resources, oblige the countries buying those resources, to do some refining and production here where the raw materials are.

Ghana exports cocoa and makes no chocolate. Trinidad exports bauxite but makes no aluminum. But it has always been so. Did the original Hudson’s Bay Company, which became wealthy on furs, ever make one fur coat in Canada?

Finally, and forgive me for repeating myself: how long before Canada stops fighting to export finished lumber and simply sends raw logs to American sawmills? New Zealand ships logs to Japan. They have virtually no finished lumber industry.