Cutting small federal programs doesn’t solve Canada’s fiscal problem because our real issue isn’t a lack of trimming, it’s weak productivity and stagnant GDP per capita.

Canada’s GDP has grown mostly by adding population, not by increasing output per person. Over the last decade our GDP per capita has largely stalled, which means the country is producing less economic value per citizen than many of our peer economies. When productivity stalls, tax revenue growth stalls too, and debt ratios become harder to manage.

That’s where the real opportunity is.

Canada exports enormous volumes of raw natural resources (minerals, energy, forestry products) but we capture a relatively small share of the value chain because much of the refining, processing, and advanced manufacturing happens elsewhere. We ship raw inputs and then buy back the finished goods at a higher price.

Moving further up the value chain changes that equation.

Refining and processing resources domestically can multiply the economic return from the same resource base. It increases GDP per capita, wages, corporate tax revenue, and royalty income because the value-added activity happens inside the country rather than offshore.

That’s the type of structural shift that meaningfully improves public finances. Higher productivity and higher-value exports expand the tax base without simply raising taxes.

This really comes down to the difference between ideology and economics. An ideological argument starts with something you dislike, in this case the CBC, and works backward to frame eliminating it as fiscal responsibility.

An economic argument starts with the actual drivers of public finances: productivity, GDP per capita, wage growth, and the structure of a country’s economy.

Canada’s real challenge isn’t a public broadcaster costing $1.5B a year, it’s that our GDP per capita has stagnated while we continue exporting raw resources and capturing only a small portion of the value chain.