Not blue-chip

Re: The Hazy Path To Economic Growth, David Akin, Oct. 21.

If this is the best the “bluechip” committee can come up with — spending on infrastructure, attracting foreign investment and dramatic increases in immigration — I have to question how deeply these folks thought about the problem.

For instance, there was no mention of the damage interprovincial trade barriers are doing to our economy; nor the fact that governments ( and their proxies), at all levels, look upon t axpayers as automated banking machines with unlimited supplies of funds from which to withdraw. In Ontario, the Wynne Liberals are extracting a heavy toll on the population with their energy policies — just one example of the strain that all consumers are facing. Now, more pain looms as cap- and- trade hits the cost of everything in Ontario.

No wonder our economy is soft. Jeff Barker, Mississauga, Ont.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s blue- chip panel cannot but give birth to policies that are, surprise, little more than confirmation of the Liberal government’s already hinted strategies. An infrastructure money burn is already on the way, as the bocce ball court requests come in. We also want foreign investment, but who doesn’ t. And, not least, let’s flood the country with 450,000 new immigrants a year, who will dutifully vote Liberal ever after.

Nowhere in this brainstormed bounty is there any mention of the obvious factors producing Canada’s economic lethargy. Ontario and Alberta are no longer the engines of growth. They are twin anchors, whose policies are guaranteed to cripple any plans of incoming foreign investment. Ontario’s energy costs are a wall around the province, keeping us in and business out. And the burgeoning lunacy of carbon taxes promises to put a stake through the enfeebled economic heart of the country. How much is this blue-chip advice costing us, anyway? Richard Fuschi, Windsor, Ont.