Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks to media in Fort McMurray, Alta., announcing that the Pacific Link pipeline has been listed as a project of national interest on Oct. 1, 2026. Photo by Itoro Umanah/Fort McMurray Today

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Government intervention in the Canadian economy continues to rapidly expand under Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals, directing more and more pools of money into projects and initiatives that are deemed by the government to be essential elements of a new national state-managed crusade to global greatness.

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This week’s fast-tracking of the second phase of LNG exports through Kitimat is widely supported thanks to the impression that it represents a major change in Ottawa’s approach to the development of Canada’s energy economy in the face of Donald Trump’s radical nationalism.

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Never mind the fact that producing high-cost LNG from low-cost natural gas and then converting it back into gas increases greenhouse-gas emissions. Globally, turning gas into liquid for shipment produces about 65 per cent more carbon emissions than a gas pipeline, according to an International Energy Agency study. The transitions from gas to liquid and back also raises the final price, with gas currently priced at $3 per MMbtu compared with $25 for LNG. There has been no mention of the need to purchase carbon offsets for the new pipeline.

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The project could also face competition from the United States, where President Trump this week announced an initial deal for an LNG project to export gas from Alaska to South Korea.

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The misleading policy impression fostered by Carney and others is that the LNG approval is the result of the new aggressive Build Canada Strong movement under the guidance of the Liberals. During Tuesday night’s LNG media show the prime minister droned on, saying “Canada is working. Canada is building big again.” We live in “a world where Canada fully values export diversification and the greater sovereignty it confers. A world where speed, reliability, and predictability are major competitive advantages. A world where Canadians are committed to building Canada strong for all. We have what the world wants. Canada is a reliable and trusted partner. We’re delivering big again. We are building big, building fast. And crucially, as everyone has emphasized, building in the right way. Working together, working for all Canadians. And we are just getting started.”

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As the Carney remake of the government’s role in the economy expands under the guise of rekindling national achievement, far too little attention has been paid to the underlying uneconomic principles driving the transformation.

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At the root of Carney’s tedious repetitions of national achievement is a belief in the concept of “the entrepreneurial state,” a nation where the government assumes a major role in directing, shaping and controlling investment decisions and economic activity. Carney has never used the phrase since it was popularized by economist Mariana Mazzucato in her 2013 bestseller, The Entrepreneurial State. But, as I’ve notedbefore, Mazzucato and Carney are comrades in arming the state with more economic power.

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In his book Value(s), Carney described one of Mazzucato’s earlier books on the benefits of government intervention, titled The Value of Everything, as “magisterial.” Two months after Carney was elected, Mazzucato co-authored a media commentary urging Carney to use public finance Institutions such as the Canada Infrastructure Bank and the Business Development Bank of Canada, the Canada Growth Fund and the Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative to “encourage” private investment.