Economic growth isn’t more important than lives and livelihoods

By Lethbridge Herald on November 21, 2025.

Editor,

“In the National Interest.”

Those words now remove environmental regulations in Canada when referring to “fast tracking major projects” like pipelines, mines, transmission lines and LNG. Does that sound like a good idea?

No one likes bureaucracy, but regulations, good regulations are absolutely necessary for a myriad of reasons. Flint Michigan for example. The city changed its water source and bypassed corrosion control treatments to save money. Lead poisoning and Legionnaires’ disease were the result of that decision. Criminal charges were brought against the administrator in that case but have since been dropped.

Or how about something closer to home, or rather, your ability to travel: vehicle windows and windshields. The first generation of automobiles had plate glass in all the windows, then, because of injuries and deaths, regulations were brought in to upgrade safety for citizens.

These are just a couple examples of how regulations make our lives better, but do they make it better for business? Vehicles cost more because of safety glass, so why not just use plate glass?

Tombstone Technology, people sometimes need to die before environmental or safety regulations are developed to save lives.

This is a road politicians are now traveling in an effort to jump start the Canadian economy. I understand the desire to do that, but is this really the right thing to do?

This leads to a larger, and an even less desirable conversation, growth. Our western economy, our stock market is based on unlimited growth on a planet with limited resources. As the earth’s population soars amid tensions between global powers, do you really want to talk about our economy which is based on unlimited growth?

Many years ago, while I ran my own business, an automobile repair shop, a good friend who had a marketing degree told me that if a business doesn’t double every five years, it is in trouble. I laughed. If I had a busy shop with three or four techs working, why do I need to double in size?

I made a good living and many make a good living without the growth driven by the stock market thinking. You hear it every day. “Apple met its growth targets propping up the stock….”

I’m not suggesting this has an easy fix, it doesn’t. But environmental regulations save lives and livelihoods. Safety regulations make our lives safer, so when we shove those aside in the name of economic growth, expect consequences.

Blaine Moen

Cowley