Growing the home economy

The current crises facing Canadian agriculture, and the new emphasis on environmental issues and their relationship with business and the economy, offer opportunities for future development.

It’s time society took a cultivating look at economics. The recent strategy of a company being in business to make money -- the means being secondary, if that - has not worked.

Like in family farming, cultivation has got to be the rule. We have got to act more corporately and co-operatively: business, labour and government.

Recent developments in the Kings County agricultural sector have underlined the dangers facing all Canadians in all industries. Competitiveness and pricing have had negative effects on the province's economy. Many agricultural products have been available from farther away, cheaper.

It has cost jobs and the well-being of local communities.

The same goes for many other industries, most of which are no longer among us - steelmaking, shipbuilding and so on.

Labour is the first to be affected by the moves toward “competitiveness.” Reduced wages and fewer positions are seen as the way to cut costs. In fact, smaller payrolls are seen as a positive thing among corporate investors. But what about communities? Canning or Oshawa?

As for social assistance, it should be seen as - and be - a means by which people can get into and contribute to the economy. As industrialist Henry Ford knew, workers are consumers. They are also local communities - friends and neighbours, volunteers.

No one benefits from reducing employment or reducing workers’ overall well-being and incomes. Eventually, it affects everyone.

Corporations have to collectively look at not just the bottom line tomorrow, but also the day after and the year after that.

I recall one CEO making a presentation to business students. One of the major themes of his talk was how his company moved processing off-shore to reduce costs. Canadian jobs are gone; so is their former performers’ buying power, the company’s markets and community infrastructure.

What happens if the outsourcing host has problems? The rest of the world is getting wise to us. They can hike prices or even embargo products. Groups within supplier counties can openly attack and disrupt the supply chain. As well, labour isn't going to remain cheap in other countries forever. And, it's not always going to be compliant.

The Canadian labour force and its circumstances can't readily be compared with others on price alone. We have education and health care infrastructure, and strong communities within which to operate. We have different needs. In warmer climes, even in parts of the United States, if you are having tough financial times, you can go camp under a bridge. You can’t do that here, particularly since Environment Minister John Baird fixed climate change this season: you’ll freeze your fandangos.

As for free trade, that’s fine in theory but there is no such thing, nor can there be. Even the oft celebrated NAFTA wasn’t touted as a be all and end all of trade barrier and protection reduction. It was merely the beginning of a more open trade system. Canadian negotiators knew they had to watch the Americans like hawks forever. The softwood lumber issue was only an illustration of how they can and will behave even with an agreement.

The Americans are the best neighbours a country can have. They are our friends and relatives. We Canadians above all know, since they left the imperial fold, they have been individually centered with all the good and bad that can mean. We know if the Americans get spooked, they will shut down their borders.

Where does it leave us if things go wrong in a hurry? Possibly with no fuel, no food. We need our own metal harvesting and processing, our own big manufacturing.

The same goes for all our other trading partners.

Environmental concerns offer a new field in which to build the national and local economies. Green industry and pollution control are but two such opportunities. At the same time, it gives local producers the edge when it comes up to standards.

Right now, we have to protect our food producers and processors. That primary industry, all the others that remain and new ones to come have to be cultivated and made to grow.

It starts here and now.