Philip Cross: Statcan’s limited resources would better be used for more accurate economic statistics like inflation. Read on
Perhaps if the federal government had a whole department devoted to inflation — call it Inflation and Price Change Canada — the recent surge in inflation could have been avoided. Of course, such an organization already exists on paper. The Bank of Canada’s sole purpose is keeping inflation in check. One possible reason it lost control of inflation was distraction by issues outside its mandate, including climate change.
Rob Smith holds up Europe as an example of the virtues of publishing quarterly emissions data. In reality, Europe serves as a warning of the pitfalls of focusing too much on emissions and not enough on secure and inexpensive energy sources. With natural gas in short supply as winter approaches, European countries are reopening coal-fired generating plants that were shuttered in the rush to convert to renewable energy sources.
At bottom, the only reason for publishing more frequent emissions statistics is to draw even more attention to climate change. That’s certainly not necessary. It may not even be possible given the media’s existing obsession with matters climate. Every day, the headlines scream how this summer’s hot weather is de facto evidence of climate calamity. More statistics from a minor emitter like Canada will not change consciousness in any material way.
Measuring something less frequently does not mean “those things don’t matter,” as Smith claims. Many important phenomena are measured exclusively on an annual basis because sub-annual trends are usually either inconsequential or potentially misleading. Examples include data on crime, hospital waiting lists, access to Internet, and how we live as families. The only change we need to emissions data is to make it compulsory to place their trend in the context of global emissions.
Philip Cross, formerly chief economic analyst at Statistics Canada, is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
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