THE MAPLE: Energy Corps Reaping Super-Profits While Canadians Suffer

We shouldn’t allow the economic consequences of the government’s policy failure on the cost-of-living crisis to be forgotten.

 

Since inflation reared its head in 2021, workers and consumers have been attacked on multiple fronts. On average, workers have seen their real purchasing power eroded by prices outpacing wage growth. Meanwhile, the response to inflation from the Bank of Canada has in many ways exacerbated the cost-of-living crisis. Although interest rate hikes haven’t engineered the levels of unemployment many anticipated, they have nevertheless added cost pressures in the form of higher payments on debt, including mortgages. 

 

Governments have largely failed to meaningfully act to cushion the blow of rising prices, let alone address the sources of the problem. This inaction has been all the more maddening in the face of what many have characterized as either “profit-push” or “cost-push” inflation. To put it simply, critics on the left have demonstrated throughout the inflationary crisis that corporations were imposing higher prices on workers and consumers. Some firms, moreover, were using inflation as an opportunity to increase profits ... 

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