EDITORIAL: Can our leaders fix what they broke?

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Making our economy less dependent on the U.S., breaking down interprovincial trade barriers and spending on public infrastructure to boost Canada’s economy in tough economic times are not new ideas.

All of them — priority topics at the ongoing meetings between Prime Minister Mark Carney and the premiers in Ontario’s cottage country — have moved to the top of the political agenda because of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war against Canada.

But every one of these issues has been around for decades and the reasons aren’t complicated.

Canada until now has done 75% of its trade with the U.S. because it was easy and profitable, as opposed to seeking new markets.

Our same governments that now claim breaking down interprovincial trade barriers could boost the Canadian economy by up to $200 billion annually never considered it a priority before Trump.

As for “nation-building” projects — what governments used to call “capital spending” — federal and provincial legislation and regulations have delayed and impeded such projects for decades — think of oil pipelines — until they were no longer economically viable.

Our history is replete with cases of government infrastructure projects turning into boondoggles — one glaring example being an LRT project in Toronto, funded by the Ontario, federal and municipal governments, that is billions of dollars over budget, five years behind schedule and still without a startup date.

On another front, it can take up to 15 years to approve a new mine in Canada, despite our vast reserves of valuable minerals that the world needs.

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While we expect our governments to adapt to new circumstances, such as the economic challenges to our economy caused by Trump’s trade war, the history of their lack of adaptation in the absence of a crisis is a concern.

So is the fact that no matter how quickly our governments respond to these issues today, they are all long-term solutions to the immediate problem of Trump’s tariff war, with its rapidly approaching deadline of Aug. 1.

If this is a true inflection point on these issues, as Carney and the premiers claim, it will be a historic one for Canada and dramatically boost weak Canadian productivity.

If not, Canadians will be on the hook for more inefficient spending for decades to come.