OTTAWA — Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner hopes her bill to help grow the cryptocurrency industry in Canada will inspire lawmakers to discuss it calmly, without polarization.
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His private member’s bill, introduced in February, was due to be debated in the House of Commons on Tuesday evening.
It would require the government to consult experts and create a three-year plan for these “cryptoassets.”
Many Canadians are still baffled by how these cryptocurrencies, like “Bitcoin,” work — and even exist in Canada. Ms. Rempel Garner believes that regulators and legislators also feel lost in this new financial environment.
Cryptocurrencies attracted a lot of attention when “freedom convoy” protesters blocked access to Parliament Hill for several weeks last winter.
The organizers had turned to cryptocurrencies to raise funds, following being kicked out of crowdfunding platform “GoFundMe”. An Ontario court also subsequently froze contributions made on another online site.
“We are witnessing a rigid polarization, of the type: “crypto is the devil incarnate, it’s terrible, it will ruin your life”, or, conversely, “crypto is the savior, it will free us from everything, “said Ms. Rempel Garner on Tuesday. “It’s really a bit too simplistic.”
A “cure for inflation”?
His fellow MP Pierre Poilievre, candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, is among those who praise the merits of cryptocurrencies as one of the solutions to the country’s current economic difficulties.
Last week, Poilievre said cryptocurrencies might help Canadians “emerge from inflation,” and he pledged to make the country friendlier to these cryptoassets.
In the leadership race, Ms. Rempel Garner works as part of the team of Patrick Brown, Mr. Poilievre’s rival.
Economist Trevor Tombe of the University of Calgary says buying cryptocurrencies does not protect anyone once morest price swings and inflation. In fact, he says, “Bitcoin” can be very volatile.
“It’s not some sort of cure for the challenges that inflation presents right now. It’s not — not now, and not even in a hypothetical world where only cryptocurrency is used,” he said.
Professor Tombe points out that it is the increase in oil prices that is the main driver of inflation at the moment.
“It doesn’t matter what currency you use to value a barrel of oil: if you take a certain number of barrels out of the market, as happened following Russia invaded Ukraine, prices will go up. In the same way, when demand drops, during recessions, prices will go down.”
Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press