MLA Report: Prosperity requires more gates and fewer gatekeepers

By Drew Barnes on April 14, 2022.

Earlier this year, I wrote a column about how Alberta must rediscover our strength through freedom. While the Premier in particular refuses listen to such arguments, preferring to double down on corporate welfare and other such schemes, I am pleased to hear this message seems to be getting through to an ever-growing segment of society.

In particular, I was pleased to hear about federal CPC leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre’s new plan to bypass “the gatekeepers” as part of his new home building strategy. This is an approach I support because it removes impediments that prevent the free market from meeting our society’s needs – in this case housing.

But who are these “gatekeepers?” Do you have time for a quick history lesson?

Following the Magna Carta in 1215, citizens of England were first awarded the legal right to engage in trade. At first, this freedom was restricted only to the lords and it took some time for the lower classes to fully realize such rights. Local lords would accept bribes to sell monopolies to the various guilds in their towns, and the guilds in turn would restrict every aspect of the trade, from worker training, to prices, to how many goods could be produced.

These economic “gatekeepers” used their position and influence to pick winners and losers and feather their own nests. Not only did the system gridlock the economy, but also reinforced a rigid class system that kept the peasants ‘in their place.’

Of course, the innate human desire for freedom resists such tyranny. Eventually the peasants started producing goods outside of the towns, creating what are still known as cottage industries. They sold their goods in black markets located just outside of the towns, in areas known as liberties.

These markets quickly became hot beds of activity where people could do and speak as they chose. For example, William Shakespeare’s plays were performed in theatres located in liberties. The economy flourished, prosperity was born, and with it the rigid social class structure of the day began to dissolve.

Today, we have a new class of gatekeepers, intent on using their position and influence to feather their own nests. They operate within governments at all levels, particularly in Edmonton and Ottawa.

Every time you see a politician bragging about dumping taxpayer dollars into risky investments that the private sector wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot poll, that’s a gatekeeper.

When you see a premier pick winners and losers in the market using subsidies or other forms of corporate welfare, that’s a gatekeeper.

When a Prime Minister intentionally writes unfair regulations designed specifically to harm an industry, that’s a gatekeeper.

I have said it many times; I believe Alberta has boundless potential. We have been blessed with abundant natural resources, and we have a young, motivated and well-trained workforce that is ready, willing and able to carry us into the future.

So what is holding us back from reaching our potential as one of the most free and prosperous jurisdictions in North America?

The bottom line is this: for economic growth and long-term prosperity, we need more gates and fewer gatekeepers.

From my family to yours, please accept my wishes for a Happy Easter.

Drew Barnes is MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat

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