By Erin Weir
Briarpatch Magazine
December 2008
In recent years, progressive commentators have bemoaned the extent to which skyrocketing commodity prices locked Canada’s economy into the environmentally and economically unsustainable extraction of non-renewable resources. Rising commodity prices drove up energy costs and the U.S. exchange rate, to the detriment of Canada’s manufacturing and tradable services sectors. Certainly, the recent crash of commodity prices underscores the value of developing a more diverse mix of industries, but commodity prices remain high by historical standards: the Bank of Canada’s Commodity Price Index was at the same level in October 2008 as its annual average for 2007. Since most commodities are Crown-owned, relatively high prices provide an opportunity to raise the revenues needed to finance the public programs advocated by progressives. In particular, collecting appropriate revenues from the depletion of non-renewable resources could finance the investments in conservation and renewable energy needed to build an environmentally sustainable society.
