An overabundance of natural resources can be both a blessing and a curse contended visiting professor Daniel Drache.
Canada should confront that question and develop new policies and practices, argued Drache at his talk at the University of Northern B.C. Thursday night.
In the end, he said natural resources represent both good and bad.
"It's like darkness and light. It's a blessing in the sense that a large part of our standard of living comes from the wasteful way that we use our resources," said Drache, a professor emeritus in political science at York University.
But he said many Canadians are paying closer attention to the impact of its resources, most of which are fossil fuel based.
"They contribute hugely to global warming so Canadians want better stewardship and they're concerned about the future of the planet but at the same they live off them, so of course they're uneasy," Drache said in an interview before his talk.
Both under regulation and over regulation have their problems, he said, and reliance on peak oil prices lead to a situation where, as in Alberta, "short-termism is the gold standard."
In the context of plummeting global oil prices and numerous extraction projects in Canada's pipeline, Drache presented three ways to break out of the resource curse.
He billed them as an escape strategy for a sustainable economic future, though he acknowledged it's a simplification of an issue that could have many solutions.
"The first thing is cut governmental subsidies to oil and gas industry," he said, adding the richest industries get the largest subsidies. "This would immediately reduce CO2 emissions. It's a terrific idea."
It should also develop a sovereign wealth fund, which Drache described as "a kind of war chest.
"The federal government is absolutely critical because you need this kind of massive infrastructure spending and only government can do this."
Finally, Drache said a national carbon tax is a must.
Here, he said B.C. is leading the provincial pack.
"Many global institutions such as [International Monetary Fund], World Bank, and local research institutions regard it as sanity and a smart set of policies to reduce fossil fuels," he said. "The question that this raises is, is it good for the rest of Canada?
So far, Drache said Canada is "leading from behind," pointing to Canada's withdrawal from the Kyoto accord as one example.
"There is no coherent, responsible forward-looking looking policy from the federal government," he said.
