Elbows Up or Down?

On Oct. 9th, 2025, Carolyn Rogers, Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada, gave a speech titled “Productivity’s Competitive Edge” to the Canadian Club Toronto. Friends of Science Society has issued an Open Letter critiquing the rather simplistic ‘solution’ for Canada’s economic woes which Rogers proposed – simply be more productive. She had urged the same thing a year ago, claiming it was an emergency and time to ‘break the glass’ – as if in a fire situation.

The video below provides highlights from the Friends of Science Society’s open letter and gives trade statistics for Canada-US and Canada-global trade, showing that most of our problems stem from climate and Net Zero policies; especially now when the US, our largest trading partner, has abandoned the Paris Agreement and most other climate policies are being repealed or weakened. An example shown is that Canada Post, a Crown Corporation, was required to comply with a banking climate reporting policy from the “Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures.” This and other activities led to a financially ailing Canada Post to put $1 billion into EVs, renewable energy, and other climate compliance (ESG) measures…only to need the federal government to bail them out with a loan for $1 billion. In the meantime, Canada Post had been on strike for a month during the SME retailers’ busiest time of the year – at Christmas. The burden of these expenses fall on the SME, which are Canada’s most nimble, productive sector – the very sector that policies should be aimed at helping! Canada’s geographic location is a blessing and a curse – we are right next to the world’s largest consumer and industrial market so we naturally do a lot of trade with the US. However, we are isolated from other international markets by kilometers of ocean, making it difficult for us to be competitive. Curiously, in April, the Canadian government voted to endorse a global shipping carbon tax, which would have been from $100-$380/t CO2 emitted…and would have made it even more expensive and less competitive for our major export industries, like agricultural products. The US voted down this motion and has threatened to slap more tariffs on any country that supports such a tax.

View the presentation slides below.

Here is a link to our open letter to Governor Tiff Macklem of the Bank of Canada on his Speech in Saskatchewan. (new tab)

Here is a link to our open letter to Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers of the Bank of Canada. (new tab)