In praise of government intervention

by Max Fawcett, Managing Editor

The hand of government gets a bad reputation within the business community, and sometimes for good reason. But there are times when a little intervention can be a good thing. Take Alberta’s beef industry, which has been under considerable pressure ever since mad cow disease was discovered in an Alberta cow in 2003. It never made it into the food chain, and was removed from the slaughterhouse in January after it was discovered that it was sick. But its carcass was sent to a processing plant for rendering into oils, and the very presence of the disease caused countries like Japan and South Korea to impose import bans on Canadian beef. And while South Korea might be a small country when compared to its neighbours in the region, for Canadian beef exporters it’s anything but insignificant.  Prior to the ban, it consumed approximately $43 million worth of Canadian beef a year.

Today, South Korea announced that it was lifting its ban, and it stands to reason that the Alberta government had a hand in the decision. When Alberta Venture talked to Ted Haney, the president of the Canada Beef Export Federation, in October of last year, he described the role that the Alberta government was playing in fostering and facilitating international trade relationships on behalf of Alberta businesses as “very helpful.” Haney would probably substitute an even more enthusiastic adverb into that statement after today’s decision.

What’s the bigger picture here? In our praise for the virtues of the invisible hand of the market economy, let’s not forget that the visible one of government can be just as useful.

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