At the last AGM for the Council of Canadians, motions from the Hamilton Chapter of CoC were passed to utilize the Bank of Canada for infrastructure funding.
There are CoC chapters in many communities across the country. They have their own programmes and agendas but using the BoC for infrastructure financing has now been approved as one of their objectives.
As the federal government moves forward with its plans to establish an infrastructure bank – described by one of our newer members as the “Public Asset Pilfering Bank” – in conjunction with Blackrock investments, the executive believes that COMER members across the country could work with their local CoC chapters to mobilize opposition to the proposed infrastructure bank and, instead, to promote the use of the Bank of Canada for financing infrastructure.
The other opportunity for COMER members is through the LEAP Manifesto. Their stated approach to financing infrastructure is to use fiscal measures (taxing and spending) as suggested by the CCPA. Avi Lewis, one of the founders of LEAP, criticized COMER members for being “essentialists”; so, tends not to look at the role the BoC could play.
But LEAP does not recognize that the current financial system is an essential component of the environmental and social issues with which LEAP is concerned. Readers are encouraged to review what John Hotson wrote in the early ’90s about the connection between environmental and financial systemic problems.
Herb Wiseman
