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Canada goes full Krugman. Finance minister jacks up borrowing and spending, confirms gold sale – Peter Diekmeyer
Bill Morneau took centre stage last week in the Canadian Parliament and didn’t disappoint. The new Liberal finance minister’s first budget jacked up program spending across the board, to be paid for by borrowing and, eventually, presumably, money printing. His rhetoric was coated with suggestions that “economic growth” would solve the country’s problems. The only folks left out were taxpayers and savers.
On the face of it, Morneau’s logic makes sense. With interest rates near zero and the Canadian government’s debts among the lowest in the G-7, why not borrow a bit and invest in infrastructure? Well, there are several reasons – and all of them augur well for the future of gold.
Canadian government debt at record levels
Morneau is technically right. The Canadian government’s debt is at low levels compared to that of other advanced economies. However, those numbers are shaky. For one, they include only federal debts, not provincial debts. If you include all Canadian government debts including the provinces (US states are not allowed to run deficits), things look far worse.
Furthermore, Morneau’s numbers don’t include huge debts that the former Conservative Harper Government never bothered to record as liabilities, such as deferred pension and healthcare costs, a policy Prime Minister Trudeau’s Liberal government is continuing. Canada’s Fraser Institute estimates that such unfunded liabilities totalled nearly $4.1 trillion1 in 2014. Those unrecorded debts alone are equal to more than 200% of Canada’s GDP. Worse, Canadians, whose household debt-to-disposable-income ratios are at record levels, are in no position to finance those additional government obligations.
Sell off gold, spend the cash
During the hours before Mr. Morneau tabled the budget, he wandered into the lock-up room, where reporters were poring over advance copies of the document.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Stephen Harper, Serial Abuser of Power: More Evidence
Stephen Harper, Serial Abuser of Power: More Evidence
Canada’s most ethically corrupt government? You be the judge. Second of two.
Today we focus on how Harper has willfully misgoverned — 28 ways the PM and his team have lied, flouted rules and stymied democracy to achieve political and ideological ends.
Please help us out. As you read, if any abuses we’ve forgotten come to mind, either make a note in the comments thread after this piece or send us an email at editor@thetyee.ca, subject line Harper Abuse List. We will fold what we get into a final, single version as a handy reference for the campaign. That runs Monday.
Thanks again to a few friends of The Tyee who researched and helped with this list.
PMO Tied to Senate Hush Money Scandal
An RCMP affidavit reported widespread involvement by PMO staffers in a secret payment to Senator Mike Duffy to try and make a political problem go away. The Senate expenses scandal brought on allegations of a cover-up, a breach of the public trust, and a whitewashing of a Senate report. The PMO was found to have hand in the altering of a damning Deloitte audit.
Harper Found in Contempt of Parliament
For refusing to disclose information on the costing of programs to Parliament, which Parliament was entitled to receive, the Harper government became the first in Canadian history to be foundin contempt of Parliament.
Against Court Order, Refusal to Share Budget Info
Even though it lost a court case and was ordered to comply, the Harper government nevertheless refused to share 170 times reasons and impacts for cuts with Canada’s independent budget watchdog, mocking Parliament’s right to control the public purse.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Bill C-51 passes in House of Commons
Passed third reading by a margin of 183 to 96
The federal government’s controversial new anti-terrorism bill has won the approval of the House of Commons.
The Anti-Terrorism Act, also known as Bill C-51, easily passed third reading by a margin of 183 to 96, thanks to the Conservative government’s majority and the promised support of the third-party Liberals.
The legislation gives the Canadian Security Intelligence Service more power to thwart suspected terrorist plots — not just gather information about them.
It also increases the exchange of federal security information, broadens no-fly list powers and creates a new criminal offence of encouraging someone to carry out a terrorist attack.
In addition, the bill makes it easier for the RCMP to obtain a peace bond to restrict the movements of suspects and extend the amount of time they can be kept in preventative detention.
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney has said the legislation is required to keep Canadians safe from jihadi-inspired attacks like those that claimed the lives of two soldiers in attacks just days apart last October.
Opponents of the bill have denounced the idea of allowing CSIS to go beyond gathering information to actively derailing suspected schemes.
A range of interests — civil libertarians, environmental groups and the federal privacy commissioner — have expressed grave concerns about the information-sharing provisions, saying they could open the door to abuses.
- Bill C-51 opposition tweeted by Margaret Atwood, Sarah Harmer
- Anti-terrorism powers: What’s in the legislation?
Prior to the vote, the Opposition New Democrats voted noisily — and in vain — in favour of proposed amendments that they say would have added a level of oversight and stronger privacy protections, among other things.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
New counterterrorism bill to override certain privacy limits
Passport and other information to be shared with security agencies
The federal government believes Canada is vulnerable to a significant terrorist attack because of legislative gaps that hinder and, in some cases prevent, federal agencies from sharing information about potential threats.
Government sources tell CBC News that legislation to be tabled when Parliament resumes later this month will provide national security agencies with explicit authority to obtain and share information that is now subject to privacy limits.
The legislation is the centrepiece of a package of wide-ranging security measures to be unveiled in the coming weeks. They include:
- Changes to the privacy limits governing information submitted in passport applications to allow it to be shared with national security agencies.
- Authorizing information on the movement of controlled goods such as automatic weapons and tracking devices, and substances that can be used to make chemical weapons, to be shared with investigative agencies.
- Making it easier for police to detain suspected extremists.
- A new strategy to help prevent young people from becoming radicalized.
These gaps were identified in an extensive review begun after the separate attacks last October by Martin Couture-Rouleau, who ran over and killed a Canadian Forces member in a hit-and-run attack, and by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who stormed Parliament Hill armed with a hunting rifle after shooting a Canadian Forces soldier in the back as he stood guard at the National War Memorial.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Canadian Patriot Act Arrives: Ottawa To Give Security Agencies More “Detention And Surveillance” Powers | Zero Hedge
Stop us when the flashbacks to September 11, and its Patriot Act aftermath, become too close for comfort.
s Reuters reported moments ago, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday the government will expedite plans to give more powers of detention and surveillance to security agencies in the wake of an attack on Parliament.
“They need to be much strengthened, and I assure you, Mr. Speaker, that work which is already under way will be expedited,” he told the House of Commons, one day after a gunman launched an attack on Parliament and was shot dead.
On the other hand, instead of giving the government even more authoritarian power to do with civilian liberties as it sees fit and appropriate, perhaps the government’s agencies could have simply done their work better under the existing laws and regulations, especially after the Sky News report that the Ottawa shooter, Canadian born Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, was already on a terror watch list.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
