The Empire Statue Building was, for its time, monumental. The New York landmark may not be such a big deal these days, but its construction history in often invoked as a sign that we’ve lost the capacity to do big stuff.

After all, the iconic skyscraper’s builders brought the project to completion $19 million under budget, 12 days ahead of schedule, and in just over a year.

At the height of the depression.

By contrast, California’s High-Speed Rail project – designed to ultimately link San Diego with Sacramento – was authorized in 2008. Construction on Phase 1 didn’t being until 2015. As of now, $11.2 billion has been spent without a single train having left a single station. The total budget was originally in the $33-40 billion range, although it’s now anticipated to run past $128 billion. And no one’s expecting project completion any time in the next decade.

Closer to home, we can compare the original 7.4 kilometer Yonge Line of Toronto’s subway system (fully-functional by 1954 after just five years’ work) with its grandson, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. The Eglinton line was announced in 2007, work began in 2011 and, 13 years later, completion is still nowhere in sight. Since I live just a few blocks from what might one day become an LRT station, I’ll be sure to let you know if anything changes.

In the grand scheme of things, North America might not even have it so bad. Lately, everyone (and by “everyone” I mean everyone besides my wife, children, or even a single person I have ever met) has been buzzing about a 17,000-word article called “Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated”. I strongly encourage you to read the whole thing have ChatGPT summarize it for you.

The main takeaway from Foundations is that the UK’s excessive regulations, high energy and labour costs, bureaucratic delays, and outdated tax incentives led to an application process requiring 360,000 pages and nearly £300 million for the Lower Thames Crossing project before any work was even approved!

The rot that lies behind Britain’s paralysis has been building since the 1990’s, through both Conservative and Labour governments.

But things might not be so bad here at home. For one thing, we probably don’t have a regulatory bureaucracy that’s quite so extreme as Britain’s. I’m aware of nothing in Canada that’s analogous to the UK’s “nutrient neutrality” requirements.

And while our energy costs are certainly not cheap, they’re a whole lot better here than in the UK. Commercial electricity, for instance, costs an average of USD 0.117 per kWh in Canada, far below the USD 0.485 per kWh they’re paying in the UK. And the cost of natural gas for home heating in Canada (USD 0.038 per kWh) isn’t even close to what they shell out across the pond (USD 0.092 per kWh).

Which might at least partially explain why, despite all the delays, cost overruns, and unexpected service failures involved, some major infrastructure projects have reached a (broadly) happy conclusion.

For every expensive failure (like the Eglinton Crosstown LRT or the Ottawa Confederation Line), there have also been successes (like Confederation Bridge and Vancouver’s Canada Line). Things are far from perfect, but it’s not all doom and gloom either.

The Foundations article ends on a positive note:

We believe that Britain can enjoy such a renewal once more. To do so, it need simply remove the barriers that stop the private sector from doing what it already wants to do: build homes, bridges, tunnels, roads, trams, railways, nuclear power plants, grid connections, prisons, aqueducts, reservoirs, and more.

Removing barriers. Or even better, resisting the erection of new barriers before they’re in place. We can always hope.

From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

By Jay Goldberg

Canadians are worried about government debt and axing corporate welfare is the closest thing to a silver bullet politicians have to solve the problem.

Canada’s politicians spent $89 billion handing out taxpayer cash to corporations in 2021, the last year for which figures are available, according to the Fraser Institute.

To get a handle on swelling government debt at both the federal and provincial levels, it’s time to put corporate welfare on the chopping block.

And those who think taxpayers don’t care about government debt are sorely mistaken.

A recent Leger poll shows 81 per cent of Ontarians are concerned about the debt dive the province has taken over the past decade.

No doubt Canadian taxpayers are just as alarmed about the doubling of Canada’s federal debt during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s nine years running Parliament Hill.

When an individual has a debt problem, the first step is to stop digging. The same is true of governments.

This year, just two of Canada’s 10 provinces are running balanced budgets. And Ottawa is nowhere close.

But look at the corporate welfare numbers and a path to solving Canada’s run-away government debt problem begins to emerge.

Take Ontario.

Ontario’s politicians have racked up $145 billion in new debt over the past decade, including more than $80 billion over the past six years under Premier Doug Ford.

Thanks to years of mismanagement, Ontario taxpayers will spend $13.9 billion on debt interest payments this year. That’s more than the province spends on post-secondary education.

And this year’s deficit is a whopping $9.8 billion.

Ontarians are concerned. And rightly so.

But take a quick gander at the Fraser Institute’s report and a path toward balance becomes clear.

The Ford government spent $22.1 billion in taxpayer handouts to corporations in 2021.

If this year’s handouts are even half of what they were in 2021, the Ford government could wipe out its deficit and produce a surplus by eliminating corporate welfare alone.

It’s unfair to place more and more debt at the feet of our children and grandchildren to give wealthy companies handouts.

It’s also unfair to pick winners and losers. The Ford government is taxing hardworking Ontarians, as well as small businesses, and handing billions over to wealthy corporations that don’t need taxpayer help.

Over the past few years, the Ford government has teamed up with the Trudeau Liberals to give billions to wealthy companies like Honda, Volkswagen, the Ford Motor Company, Stellantis, and many others.

Each year, Ottawa and Queen’s Park ran big deficits while handing out taxpayer cash to wealthy companies like candy. In many cases, taxpayers are paying millions of dollars for every job created.

Corporate welfare is fueling government debt. And it’s time for it to stop.

Not only is corporate welfare insanely costly, but it simply doesn’t work.

Between 2011 and 2021, the Ontario government spent $100 billion on corporate welfare. Yet inflation-adjusted economic growth in Ontario was below one per cent, on average, during that decade.

If handing out billions to create jobs and grow the economy worked, surely, we’d have the evidence by now.

Queen’s Park isn’t the only place where the budget could be turned around if corporate welfare were a thing of the past.

The Trudeau government also spent $47 billion on corporate welfare in 2021, which roughly equates to its budget deficit this year.

If 2024 corporate welfare numbers are in line with 2021, the Trudeau government could balance its budget in one fell swoop.

Taxpayers are rightly concerned about growing government debt across the country. Ending handouts to wealthy companies is an obvious solution to the debt binge.

After all, you cannot borrow and subsidize your way to prosperity.