When the Liberal administration of Mark Carney suspended the federal excise tax on gasoline until next year, Canada’s socialist NDP was outraged. Leader Avi Lewis, a parody of an undergraduate radical from the 1980s, bellowed: “People are getting gouged at the pumps, but another costly handout of public money to oil and gas companies is no solution.” Eh? Costly handout of public money? Yeah, see apparently not taxing something is a handout to the seller. That’s socialist economics in a nutshell.

A real economist understands that a tax is paid by both customers and firms, because it prevents some buyers from getting the product at all while forcing all the rest to pay more for whatever they do buy, and prevents some sellers from making a sale at all while forcing all the rest to accept less for whatever they do sell. (If you want to get technical, and who doesn’t, it pushes the market quantity below the market-clearing level on the supply and demand curves and creates a gap between what buyers pay and sellers receive, the government pocketing the difference.)

Not a point Lewis seems likely to grasp, as he raved on:

“Even after the Carney government’s $2.4 billion giveaway, gas prices continue to soar. In July, they were up more than 25% compared to last year. Instead of more corporate welfare, it’s time for a windfall tax on the big oil giants that are set to make $100 billion in profits this year because of Trump’s illegal war in Iran. Doing so will generate billions in new revenue that we can use to give Canadians real relief at gas stations and grocery checkouts.”

Now again, a real economist would understand that just because prices are up doesn’t mean firms are making more money. On the contrary, if costs are up too they might well be making less. And the Iran war is a real thing with real impacts on energy markets, not something that only exists in the mind.

Unlike that business about “illegal”. Lewis doesn’t bother to cite any relevant laws, of course. It’s not the business he’s in. Nor does he explain how a tax that further cranks up the price of gas would provide relief at the pump. But perhaps we waste too much argument on unresisting if unrelenting imbecility here.

Admittedly the same could be said of the government’s various explanations including a Sept. 9 press release from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, a ministry that if it did not exist nobody would want it to:

“As Canadians continue to face economic uncertainty and rising costs, affordability remains top of mind for families and businesses across the country. To help Canadians facing rising fuel costs, the Government of Canada introduced a temporary suspension of the federal fuel excise tax on gasoline, aviation gasoline (leaded and unleaded), diesel fuel, and other aviation fuel earlier this year.”

Only a politician or bureaucrat, or perhaps an academic or activist, would think that not adding yet another tax actually helped people face rising fuel costs. It does mean they don’t have to face even faster-rising fuel costs. But in what world is not adding a tax lowering the price? Well, Politician in Wonderland.

So it’s not surprising that on September 2 the Prime Minister reposted a story by Global News while proclaiming:

“Lower costs at the pump. More money in your pocket.”

But costs weren’t going down because a tax wasn’t reimposed. They just weren’t going up. At least not for that reason. They actually did go up, so we had less money in our pockets and more nonsense in our ears.

And since a fish rots from the head, another press release, also on Sept. 9, from Health Canada, blathered:

“Today, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health, Maggie Chi, participated in an event marking the announcement that the government is extending the temporary suspension of the federal fuel excise tax until January 31, 2027, and applying 50% of the regular excise tax rate from February 1 through March 31, 2027. This will bring down everyday costs for Canadians, including truckers and businesses in the food, agriculture, housing, construction, and delivery sectors.”

If you’re wondering why the Minister of Health would be strutting about talking about fuel taxes, or why the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health would be doing so for her, well, the Liberals know how to get mileage from a press release or a publicity stunt if not from an EV.

Meanwhile, if you’re wondering why we have a Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health, it’s because the more Members of Parliament are sucked into the Executive with cheesy titles plus pay raises and perks the less independence Parliament will show. And if you can’t remember who the Minister of Health even is, her colleagues might have the same problem and it doesn’t matter because our healthcare system has been in crisis for at least 30 years and the solution is always to fix it by changing nothing, especially as politicians and senior bureaucrats do not get stuck on peasant waiting lists. But we digress.

The point is, it doesn’t “bring down everyday costs for Canadians”, or even the every-few-days costs you encounter when you fill your tank, not to push them up further. At which point if you haven’t gone mad reading government verbiage you might be wondering what if the government instead of just not making things a lot worse fast actually, oh, say, increased the supply of gasoline, a famous mechanism for lowering the cost?

Here things get even weirder. Another press release, same day, this one from Natural Resources Canada, declared that:

“Canada is building the major projects needed to strengthen our energy sector, grow our economy, fight climate change, and reinforce our position as a global clean and conventional energy superpower. As Canada builds its way to net-zero emissions by 2050, investments in clean technologies and emissions-reducing infrastructure are helping drive economic growth while lowering emissions across key sectors.”

Actually none of that stuff is happening. We are not building major projects, growing our economy, fighting climate change or reinforcing a position we don’t even have as a “global clean and conventional energy superpower”. Nor are we building our way to net-zero emissions by 2025, partly because we’re not building much of anything and partly because our emissions certainly aren’t on track to hit zero in 24 years. Nor are these things we’re not building “helping drive economic growth”, as productivity and investment in Canada remain anemic.

As the C.D. Howe Institute just put it in its characteristically understated way:

“As Canada brings together global investors for the Canada Investment Summit and looks to accelerate the building of major projects, a more predictable regulatory process is needed to give investors and proponents the confidence to commit capital, according to a new C.D. Howe Institute report.”

But apparently the people in charge don’t know, don’t care or both. As Gwyn Morgan just wrote in C2C Journal, economic policy has almost always been beset by difficult circumstances but:

“rarely if ever have so many things gone so wrong at the same time. Worse still is that the current government seems unable to grapple effectively with any of it – beyond issuing a stream of announcements, plans and spending commitments.”

Even the Hill Times, not given to challenging Laurentian orthodoxy, ran a hed and deck:

“After the failure of trade talks, Canada has to push forward and build/ Global investors are coming to Toronto this month for the Canada Investment Summit. The federal government must be ready to show them – and Canadians – the projects, partnerships, and an execution plan that can turn interest into investment.”

So there’s that p-word again. But not the thing. Instead on Sept. 4 the Prime Minister posted on X “Electricity is one of Canada’s biggest opportunities. Here’s how we’re seizing it” and the video included a graph “DOUBLE Canada’s electricity output by 2050” showing a very steep curve but um no units.

On September 9, a staffer for Dominic LeBlanc, Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, babbled that “Canada is building strength at home by diversifying our trade relationships, expanding opportunities for Canadian businesses, and reducing our dependence on any single partner” which we’re not, and attempted to justify this babble by explaining that they are not merely talking about building stuff, they are also, um, listening to other people talk about building stuff:

“Today, the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs, Internal Trade and One Canadian Economy, the Honourable Steven MacKinnon, Minister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, and the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Jobs and Families and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario, announced the release of four What We Heard reports following the Government’s nationwide engagement on proposed legislative, regulatory and policy reforms to help build one strong Canadian economy.... The reports reflect input received from Indigenous Peoples, provinces and territories, stakeholders, and Canadians, as well as engagement with unions, labour organizations, employers, employer associations and National Indigenous Organizations.”

Goodness. What a lot of words. Especially as:

“The report highlights strong interest in improving the efficiency and predictability of federal regulatory processes while emphasizing the importance of maintaining robust environmental protections and upholding the rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

Oh. Just that. Starting and ending with the Indigenous veto on anything and everything, distributed among hundreds if not thousands of parties to ensure deadlock.

The trouble is, the government doesn’t prattle economic nonsense as a cunning plan to distract you. Just like the opposition, they do it because they haven’t any idea what’s really going on. Which has a dismal and predictable effect on their other cunning plans. And leads to an increasingly nasty tone, as various ministerial bobble-heads’ press releases on the excise tax frequently begin with this PMO-supplied paranoia:

“The world is changing rapidly. The United States is imposing new tariffs on Canada, designed to hurt and divide us.”

In response to which they’ve leaped into committee, announcing plans to “streamline the review process for certain projects, including pipelines, new international power lines and designated interprovincial power lines, and certain offshore renewable energy projects, while maintaining robust environmental protections and upholding the rights of Indigenous Peoples.” So we’ll speed up approvals for the green boondoggles nobody wants to invest in anyway. Meanwhile we’re building bureaucracy faster than we’ve seen in generations. Indeed ever. Pity about the economy.