Bill Morneau says business community was unhelpful, targets political divisiveness in speech

The business community didn't help advance important policy initiatives to boost Canada's economy while Bill Morneau was in office, he says.

In a prepared speech for an address at the C.D. Howe, Morneau said that he had resigned his seat and the finance portfolio in August 2020. It was Morneau's first major speech since leaving politics.

He said that it was difficult to get input from business.

He said that Canada's productivity and economic problems are more than taxes.

Ian Russell, then chief executive of the Investment Industry Association of Canada, said that Morneau's tenure had been disappointing. He mentioned competitiveness and foreign investment.

Morneau tried to get the business community to invest in public-private initiatives. The former finance minister said in his speech that the Canada Infrastructure Bank had fallen short of its hoped for impact due to a lack of commitment by politicians.

We need to get over the idea that government itself can solve all the problems we face

While he is no longer part of the Liberal government, Morneau's speech also appeared to take aim at Conservative leadership hopeful Pierre Poilievre and his attacks on the independence of the Bank of Canada. If Poilievre forms the next government, he will get rid of the Bank of Canada Governor.

When people of good conscience see politicians playing fast and loose with our institutions, they need to call them out.

That could help you sell more memberships. It could help you win an election. When you pander to conspiracy theorists, you are doing incalculable harm to the country you claim to love and to the people.

The independence of the Bank of Canada was defended by Morneau in his speech.

One of the most important and effective decisions of a previous generation was to make the central bank independent.

politicization and divisiveness of debate are two of the targets of his speech.

He said that political competition is essential in the same way that market competition is. It doesn't have to be stupid.

The former finance minister said that the media's scrutiny could feel personal even if they were doing their job.

At the time of his resignation from politics, Morneau and Trudeau were being probed by the federal ethics commissioner over family and personal ties to WE, which had been handed a lucrative student grants contract. Trudeau was cleared but the ethics commissioner found that Morneau should not have been involved in the awarding of the contract.

If various levels of government and the business community can find ways to work together to address Canada's slipping productivity, that is a hopeful note for Canada's prosperity.

He said that we need a national body that focuses attention and forces discussion on our need for economic growth and that we need to get over the idea that any one party has a monopoly on good ideas.

We need to get over the idea that government can solve all our problems. Climate investments, addressing our productivity challenge, an aging society, and those are all shocks to the supply side of the economy, and real solutions are more likely to be found around the boardroom table or in universities and think tanks than at the cabinet table.

The Financial Post is a division of Postmedia Network Inc.

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