We Are the Economy

Remember the lead-up to the January federal election? Almost overnight, Mark Carney went from a relatively unknown technocrat to a hugely popular candidate, propelled by his “elbows-up” stance on the U.S. tariff wars, his supposed climate credentials, and, well, the all-important fact that he wasn’t Poilievre. Hope was in the air, and Canadians cast their votes on what looked like a chance at a better future for all. That was Carney the Candidate. Months later, Carney the Prime Minister’s actions — from his recent budget to equally disastrous moves like the Canada–Alberta MoU — are telling a very different story.

As others have noted, last month’s federal budget is striking for how poorly it rises to some of the most important challenges of our time, including the affordability crisis and the climate emergency. The significant public sector funding cuts alone clearly signal “neoliberalism 2.0” and will harm, rather than help, working Canadians already facing a relentless rise in the cost of living.

On climate, the budget is a step backwards and a dramatic abdication of environmental leadership. In a context where seven of the nine planetary boundaries — the limits for systems such as climate change and biodiversity that we must not exceed to ensure a safe, stable, and healthy environment — have been breached, the Carney government’s redoubled commitment to fossil fuel production and corporate deregulation is almost unbelievable.

Carney’s imploration for Canadians to “make sacrifices” rings hollow in the context of a budget that has clear winners — wealthy, extractive corporations, and industries — and losers — namely, many struggling Canadians and our one and only planet.
 

What could have been, and what could still be

Examining some of this government’s earlier actions can help us show how different things could be. In May 2025, the government’s commitment toward an economy that works for everyone was manifested in the unusual step of creating a single mandate letter, which tasked all ministers with seven shared priorities. This signalled the government’s apparent intention, in this historically significant moment of polycrisis, to overcome silos and work collectively toward common goals.

The government’s pre-budget language resembled what many people refer to as a “well-being economy,” which means an economy in service of life. The notion of a well-being economy is anchored in a guiding principle of placing people and planet over profit. It directly challenges the extractive, growth-focused orientation of neoliberal capitalism, which has dramatic negative consequences for people and planet, yet is prominent in the budget. 

The government’s activities back in May planted some seeds for shifting to a well-being economy. The Carney government established a Cabinet Committee on Quality of Life and Well-Being, building on the Quality of Life Framework that was established under the previous federal government. That framework is significant for Canada, as it is explicitly rooted in a “beyond GDP” perspective that prioritizes what makes people’s lives worth living, over profit accumulation by corporate shareholders.

To imagine how different the federal budget could have been if the well-being of people and planet were centred, we can look to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Alternative Federal Budget (AFB). The AFB is grounded in the notion that budgets are about choices. By bringing together a broad spectrum of civil society organizations, the AFB serves the important and empowering task of demonstrating, in a concrete and compelling way, that a better Canada and Alberta are possible.

The most recent AFB engages with the idea of a well-being economy, including how the federal government could build on previous efforts, like the Quality of Life Framework and the Cabinet Committee on Quality of Life and Well-Being, to pursue a bold well-being economy vision. It contains some concrete recommendations, including the following:

1. Strengthen the mandate of the cabinet committee, so that it exists to provide political leadership for implementation and accountability around bold, equity-centred policy, consistent with a well-being economy vision.
2. Add the minister of finance to the membership of the cabinet committee, to ensure that the committee’s work and quality-of-life orientation are central, rather than peripheral, to the most powerful activities and actors in government.
3. Significantly expand the scope and authority for well-being economy-oriented activities, to include a new federal Quality of Life Act and a new position of Quality of Life Commissioner. This is modelled on theWelsh Well-being of Future GenerationsAct and Commissioner, which has powerfully contributed to policy decisions that prioritize social equity and the well-being of future generations. The act would encourage coordination between federal and provincial/territorial governments via new and existing jurisdictional mechanisms, and with Indigenous governments in ways that respect and uphold the inherent governing authority, jurisdiction, and rights of Indigenous peoples.
4. Create a new Senate standing committee on Quality of Life and Well-Being, tasked with scrutinizing all bills and examining all spending proposals to ensure alignment with a coherent, cross-government, equity-centred well-being economy vision.
5. Apply an anti-racist, anti-colonial, and anti-oppressive lens to all government initiatives. This is necessary to ensure that, consistent with an equity-centred vision, inequities of power — which are the root causes of social and environmental injustices and are usually hidden — are illuminated and addressed.

There is no better time to nurture the seeds planted by our own federal government so that a robust well-being economy can take root in Canada. Indeed, the current moment demands it. The status quo approach will only give us more of the same: growing inequity, lack of affordability, and planetary overshoot.
 

The time is now: A growing social movement in Alberta and beyond

A well-being economy demands efforts by all levels of government and civil society. In June 2023, the Parkland Institute hosted a virtual conference on a Well-Being Economy for Alberta that included many inspiring ideas and actions.

We heard from speakers from jurisdictions that have implemented aspects of the well-being economy, including the Welsh Future Generations Commissioner, who is empowered to provide expert and independent advice and oversight to government departments on embedding long-term thinking and equity-oriented coherence across sectors.

We learned about the City of Nanaimo, whose city vision is based on doughnut economics, a visual monitor of progress toward the goal of meeting the needs of all people (social foundations, the inner ring of the doughnut) within the means of the living planet (ecological ceiling, the outer ring of the doughnut).   

We heard about the important democratizing and decarbonizing potential of public banks, that is, banks that are located within the public sphere and thereby have the potential to act in the public good. This is important because we have a public bank in Alberta: ATB-Financial, which offers a significant but dramatically under-leveraged opportunity to support human and planetary well-being in our province.

We heard about emancipatory “hyper-localized” solutions like cooperative worker-owned restaurants and complementary currency such as the Calgary Dollars program run by our friends at the Arusha Centre, both of which remove the profit imperative from daily systems of exchange.

These initiatives and many others provide diverse and tangible examples of how, at different levels and scales, we can begin to shift toward an economy and society that puts all people and the planet at the centre. In doing so, we can be part of a growing coalition of scholars, activists, non-profit organizations, frontline communities, and movement builders, all calling for and working toward a well-being approach. They recognize that the economy does not exist outside of us. To the contrary, we are the economy. As such, we can — as a collective — redesign or even reinvent it to meet our needs.

While it can be easy to get caught up in what is not working and to feel a sense of despair and apathy, we invite Albertans and Canadians to join us in envisioning — and demanding — better. We need to think beyond what currently is, to what could be. So much more is possible, particularly when governments truly act in the best interest of their citizens.