Business
Have We Lost the Ability to Build Infrastructure?
The Empire Statue Building was, for its time, monumental. The New York landmark may not be such a big deal these days, but its construction history in often invoked as a sign that we’ve lost the capacity to do big stuff.
After all, the iconic skyscraper’s builders brought the project to completion $19 million under budget, 12 days ahead of schedule, and in just over a year.
At the height of the depression.
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By contrast, California’s High-Speed Rail project – designed to ultimately link San Diego with Sacramento – was authorized in 2008. Construction on Phase 1 didn’t being until 2015. As of now, $11.2 billion has been spent without a single train having left a single station. The total budget was originally in the $33-40 billion range, although it’s now anticipated to run past $128 billion. And no one’s expecting project completion any time in the next decade.
Closer to home, we can compare the original 7.4 kilometer Yonge Line of Toronto’s subway system (fully-functional by 1954 after just five years’ work) with its grandson, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. The Eglinton line was announced in 2007, work began in 2011 and, 13 years later, completion is still nowhere in sight. Since I live just a few blocks from what might one day become an LRT station, I’ll be sure to let you know if anything changes.
In the grand scheme of things, North America might not even have it so bad. Lately, everyone (and by “everyone” I mean everyone besides my wife, children, or even a single person I have ever met) has been buzzing about a 17,000-word article called “Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated”. I strongly encourage you to read the whole thing have ChatGPT summarize it for you.
The main takeaway from Foundations is that the UK’s excessive regulations, high energy and labour costs, bureaucratic delays, and outdated tax incentives led to an application process requiring 360,000 pages and nearly £300 million for the Lower Thames Crossing project before any work was even approved!
The rot that lies behind Britain’s paralysis has been building since the 1990’s, through both Conservative and Labour governments.
But things might not be so bad here at home. For one thing, we probably don’t have a regulatory bureaucracy that’s quite so extreme as Britain’s. I’m aware of nothing in Canada that’s analogous to the UK’s “nutrient neutrality” requirements.
And while our energy costs are certainly not cheap, they’re a whole lot better here than in the UK. Commercial electricity, for instance, costs an average of USD 0.117 per kWh in Canada, far below the USD 0.485 per kWh they’re paying in the UK. And the cost of natural gas for home heating in Canada (USD 0.038 per kWh) isn’t even close to what they shell out across the pond (USD 0.092 per kWh).
Which might at least partially explain why, despite all the delays, cost overruns, and unexpected service failures involved, some major infrastructure projects have reached a (broadly) happy conclusion.
For every expensive failure (like the Eglinton Crosstown LRT or the Ottawa Confederation Line), there have also been successes (like Confederation Bridge and Vancouver’s Canada Line). Things are far from perfect, but it’s not all doom and gloom either.
The Foundations article ends on a positive note:
We believe that Britain can enjoy such a renewal once more. To do so, it need simply remove the barriers that stop the private sector from doing what it already wants to do: build homes, bridges, tunnels, roads, trams, railways, nuclear power plants, grid connections, prisons, aqueducts, reservoirs, and more.
Removing barriers. Or even better, resisting the erection of new barriers before they’re in place. We can always hope.
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Business
Canada Suddenly Says It’ll Buy More US Products After Trump Threatened To Slap It With Tariffs
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Owen Klinsky
Canada’s ambassador to the United States said Monday the country is prepared to purchase more U.S. goods following President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
Trump has repeatedly lamented the trade deficit between the U.S. and its neighbor to the north, threatening to levy a 25% tariff against the country or even annex Canada and make it “the 51st state.” His remarks appear to have already impacted trade relations, with Canada’s Ambassador Kirsten Hillman saying the country is ready to buy more from the United States in order to appease the incoming president, according to an interview she gave to The Associated Press Monday.
“He has a negotiating style which involves positioning himself in the best way he can for discussions,” Hillman told the AP. “We are happy to source what we can from the United States.”
Hillman identified military procurements as a potential category where Canada could increase its consumption of U.S. products, including Canada’s next fleet of submarines: “We have some big military procurements coming up for example, replacing our entire submarine fleet. Maybe those are some purchases that can happen from the U.S.”
The U.S. had a nearly $68 billion trade deficit with Canada in 2023, a decrease of $12.2 billion from 2022, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The overall U.S. trade deficit sat at over $770 billion in 2023 — the highest of any country globally.
The ambassador also gave Trump credit for the creation of Canada’s $1 billion-plus border security and immigration plan: “We have moved really quickly, I’ll be honest, because President Trump focused the mind to put together a full package of improvements.”
Border patrol agents apprehended almost 24,000 individuals along the northern border in fiscal year 2024, representing a 140% increase from the year prior, data from the U.S. Customs And Border Protection shows.
“President Trump has promised tariff policies that protect working Americans from the unfair practices of foreign companies and foreign markets,” Trump-Vance Transition Spokesman Brian Hughes told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “As he did in his first term, he will implement economic and trade policies to make life affordable and more prosperous for our nation, while simultaneously leveling the playing field for American manufacturers.”
The Canadian embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Owen Klinsky
The Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) coalition — a United Nations–sponsored collection of financial services companies that have pledged to negate their portfolio’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner — suspended activities after investment firm BlackRock announced its departure from the group, according to a press release.
BlackRock, which manages more than $10 trillion and has been a leader in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, announced its exit from NZAM Thursday, with its Vice-Chair Philipp Hildebrand saying the firm’s involvement in the environmental coalition “caused confusion regarding BlackRock’s practices and subjected us to legal inquiries from various public officials.” Now, NZAM has pressed pause altogether, halting operations while it conducts a review of its activities, an NZAM press release published Monday said.
JUST IN: The UN-backed Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) group has announced that it will be shutting down completely, following @BlackRock‘s departure. pic.twitter.com/o5htgvFEiH
— Will Hild (@WillHild) January 13, 2025
A slew of other financial services had left NZAM prior to BlackRock’s Thursday exit, including Goldman Sachs Group, Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co. BlackRock’s exit came amid a broader corporate strategy shift away from ESG investing, with the firm only supporting about 4% of the 493 environmental and social investment proposals that shareholders put forward between the end of June 2023 and the end of June 2024, down from a rate of 47% in 2021.
BlackRock was a major supporter of ESG investing in years prior, with CEO Larry Fink saying in 2020 that “climate risk is investment risk” and that climate change would lead to a “fundamental reallocation of capital.”
“The destruction of NZAM is a huge win for consumers,” Will Hild, executive director of the conservative nonprofit Consumers’ Research, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Although there is a lot of work left to be done, what was effectively a cartel of asset managers has finally ceased taking the focus of businesses off of consumers, raising prices for everyday Americans everywhere from the gas pump to the grocery store.”
When reached for comment, NZAM referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to its press release.
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