Home » Posts tagged 'federal budget'
Tag Archives: federal budget
Financial turmoil in Canada – and what it means for the rest of the world
Financial turmoil in Canada – and what it means for the rest of the world
Max Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada, says the new federal budget will send the country deeper into debt than it already is.
Our latest episode of the Collapse Life podcast features a returning guest — Maxime Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada. He says the new federal budget is anti-growth and will send the country deeper into debt than it already is. He tells host Zahra Sethna there is no way Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can win the October 2025 election given the inflationary economic crisis people are experiencing. But he argues that Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party, is ‘meet the new boss, same as the old boss.’ Find out what Bernier says this anti-growth budget means for Canada, and how policies in Canada might start to affect people in other countries, too.
Watch on YouTube:
Watch on Rumble: https://rumble.com/v4rnttc-canadas-anti-growth-budget-is-an-indicator-of-financial-crisis.html
Listen on Spotify
Remember the people involved
Remember the people involved
When I was in University, I vividly remember one of my economics professors telling students to always remember the people involved when analyzing a policy change. I was reminded of this sage advice upon reading Matthew McCaffery’s Mises Daily article titled, “Who will pay for it?” is the wrong question to ask politicians. McCaffery’s point is the question often focuses too much on the question of who and how to pay which distracts from more important issues such as what is being paid for? I would add to that, who is being paid? By emphasizing the basic problem of finding the money, what is sometimes overlooked is the problem of whether new government programs will actually work of whether they will be wasteful and counterproductive, and who the tax consumers are.
Asking questions such as “who will pay for it?” and “what, specifically, is being paid for?” are particularly pertinent given the federal budget is to be unveiled today. Early reportssuggest cumulative budget deficits over the next two years will be well above $50 billion (about 1.3% of GDP). The question, “who will pay for it?” is answered quickly as the federal government has only three sources of revenue: current taxpayers, future taxpayers and increasing the money supply (inflation) by selling bonds to the Bank of Canada.
The consequences of higher taxes and more inflation doesn’t seem to faze many people, including some well-known economists in Canada. Doug Bandow observed that left-wing activists tend to favor corporate taxation. They imagine a society divided between businesses and people. However, firms are owned by people, employ people, sell to people, and contract with people. Taxing companies means taxing people.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Liberal fiscal plans less transparent than under Harper, Kevin Page says
Kevin Page, Canada’s former parliamentary budget officer, says the Liberal government is even less transparent on fiscal matters than their Conservative predecessors. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
Canada’s former parliamentary budget officer says the Liberal government is even less transparent on fiscal matters than the Conservative government it succeeded.
“I don’t think it is [more transparent]. The documents — they’re not better from a government that promised to be better, more transparent … there’s no more information, perhaps even less information, than what we got from the previous government,” Kevin Page said said in an interview CBC Radio’s The House.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the transparency yet,” he said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau campaigned on a pledge to run three “modest” deficits of no more than $10 billion a year. But Finance Minister Bill Morneau released his second fiscal update this week ahead of the March 22 federal budget, and his figures show it will be much higher than that.
The deficit will balloon to $18.4 billion in 2016-17 and $15.5 billion in 2017-18 — and that is before any new spending Morneau outlines in the March budget. Those numbers are drastically different from the $3.9-billion and $2.4-billion shortfalls forecast just three months ago.
“A less ambitious government might see these conditions as a reason to hide, to make cuts or to be overly cautious. But our government might see that the economic downturn makes our plan to grow the economy even more relevant than it was a few short months ago,” Morneau said Monday.
Page, who frequently squared off with the previous Conservative government over their fiscal secrecy, says his concerns about transparency stem from a lack clarity around the deficit figure.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Jobless Folks, Working Moms, and More Left Out of Canada’s Budget
Jobless Folks, Working Moms, and More Left Out of Canada’s Budget
Facing economic trouble ahead, Conservatives offer bouquet of tax breaks for the wealthy
Wasn’t it always the student who kept asking for extensions on homework who always wound up turning in the poorest quality work? Finance Minister Joe Oliver tabled the 2015 federal budget on Tuesday, using some “creative” accounting to scratch out a small surplus. But despite taking a two-month extension, everyone from mainstream economists to First Nations to the YWCA to unions and ordinary Canadians are giving Mr. Oliver a failing grade on his first federal budget.
Packed with tax breaks for wealthy Canadians, and back-loaded with promises that won’t pay out until four or five years from now, Tuesday’s budget is entirely an election document and little more. Nothing new or unexpected, and perhaps this is why Mr. Oliver’s first budget, in returning to balance, is so disappointing.
It’s a missed opportunity.
Mr. Oliver’s balance comes after six consecutive slash-and-burn deficit budgets, $14 billion every year in cuts from the services Canadians rely on from their government. These are cuts to the CBC, to policing, to veterans, to oil spill response, to healthcare, to food and rail safety, and the list goes on.
Meanwhile, Canada’s economic outlook is anything but rosy. The price of oil is forecast to remain low, while the Conservatives continue to bet the farm on raw oil exports. Unemployment is on the rise, job quality is the lowest in a generation, and pay inequality is increasing. The governor of the Bank of Canada recently referred to the effect of the oil price slump on our economy as “atrocious.” Almost three-quarters of children under five have no access to affordable, quality childcare. Eleven million Canadian workers have no access to a workplace pension, and we’ve lost 400,000 manufacturing jobs since Mr. Harper was elected.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Joe Oliver’s Budget Numbers Are Thoroughly Cooked
Joe Oliver’s Budget Numbers Are Thoroughly Cooked
That, or he’s been drinking his own Kool-Aid.
No wonder they’re spending $7.5 million in public money to advertise Joe Oliver’s budget. Bernie Madoff couldn’t have come up with a sneakier sell than this.
Still, no one should be surprised. This misbegotten government’s modus operandi is about much more than information control. It’s about soaring, jet-propelled skullduggery in a never-ending political campaign. It’s a power fantasy. It’s Steve’s way.
Armed with his narrative of convenience, Harper programs the electorate with fictions of prosperity, compassion and prudence. In the real world, he acts quite differently. There, he underfunds Coast Guard stations, veterans’ offices, First Nations tribal councils, railway inspections, scientific research and Employment Insurance processing.
And don’t forget health care — $36 billion in cuts over ten years and still no Health Accord. Next step? Transfer tax credits for health to the provinces (after all, they administer health don’t they?) and get the gum of medicare off Ottawa’s shoe for good — just like the founder of the National Citizens Coalition (once led by Steven Harper) advocated.
Numbers have a wonderfully elastic quality to them; like Harper cabinet ministers, they say what they’re told to say. Numbers are the favourite tool of fraudsters and politicians alike. One swindles money, the other swindles votes.
Here are some examples of rubber numbers from Harper’s past. When he wanted to buy F-35 fighter jets without a competitive bid process, he told Parliament the sticker price was $70 to $75 million per plane — in the crazed world of death machines, a bargain. The real price was 40 per cent higher and the Harper cabinet knew that back in 2010 long before it started lying — during an election, no less — about the actual costs to the tune of $10 billion.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
