It isn’t the government that needs to be embarrassed it’s Canadians. Until they get affected things won’t change.
A majority are concerned about the new federal budget increasing the country’s deficit to over 40 billion dollars
- Thread starter daftandbarmy
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We haven’t said no yet. The tune may change if that happens.
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Then we’re still in for a long wait…
Yes but it gets a bit more uncomfortable with domestic deployments when you say no to your own citizens. I’m not holding my breath though.
Halifax Tar
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Which I am sure absolutely surprises our Allies. As they don't expect anything of value.
Talking domestically, I am quite sure someone gave the GoC a big solid "NO!" about using the CAF to clean up the freedom convoy last year. But that was more political than capability related.
Have you read "Who Killed the Canadian Military ?" The opening chapter is, what I think, and accurate prediction of the CAF response to a major domestic humanitarian catastrophe. Our Gov might say yes, our equipment might say otherwise.
You’re probably right. Interestingly, this appeared a short while ago.
Sadly that is the only sort of thing that will wake people up. Unless they are affected they don’t care.
daftandbarmy
Army.ca Dinosaur
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A plan to have a plan isn't much of a plan, sadly:
The 2023 Federal Budget offers a strong response to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), but a Net Zero investment wave still faces headwinds from rising international competition, regulatory impediments and the difficulty in getting provinces on board.
Budget 2023 enables the Canada Infrastructure Bank to support Indigenous communities to purchase equity in major projects in which it participates. It’s a step in the right direction, but we were looking for a broader and more transparent program to speed up the process, such as government guarantees. Many clean energy projects will be on Indigenous lands, and with both communities and project sponsors increasingly interested in Indigenous equity participation, communities’ challenges in accessing capital needs to be addressed.
thoughtleadership.rbc.com
Policy Insight: Will Budget 2023 Spark A Green Investment Wave?
The 2023 Federal Budget offers a strong response to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), but a Net Zero investment wave still faces headwinds from rising international competition, regulatory impediments and the difficulty in getting provinces on board.
What’s missing in the budget?
Canada has not clarified how it will clear the way for major clean energy projects—which is emerging as an obstacle in securing new investments. Despite last year’s $1.3 billion allotted to federal agencies to improve their project approval process, Budget 2023 still only reiterates a plan to have a plan with concrete actions committed only by the end of the year. Regulatory issues like permitting may be just as important as tax credits to a project’s feasibility.Budget 2023 enables the Canada Infrastructure Bank to support Indigenous communities to purchase equity in major projects in which it participates. It’s a step in the right direction, but we were looking for a broader and more transparent program to speed up the process, such as government guarantees. Many clean energy projects will be on Indigenous lands, and with both communities and project sponsors increasingly interested in Indigenous equity participation, communities’ challenges in accessing capital needs to be addressed.
Policy Insight: Will Budget 2023 Spark A Green Investment Wave? - RBC Thought Leadership
Budget 2023’s new green measures are mostly about bolstering the upstream supply chain
thoughtleadership.rbc.com
Brad Sallows
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There will certainly be some kind of investment wave, if there are subsidies and other monies to be milked. If "unprofitable venture + subsidies = profitable venture", someone will be willing to stand something up and drop it when the subsidies end.
OldSolduer
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This government's amygdala only knows one threat - the threat to dethrone them. They feel no shame or embarrassment - the very worst GoC in my memory.
I thought the Beaverton published this - Its incredible that the CBC published it.
Its funny...when Trudeau or any Cabinet ministers stand up and say they are "Continuing to consult with Canadians..." its such a disingenuous line.
They aren't consulting Canadians ar all.
They are hiring a polling company to poll X number of people in these Y number of area codes to get their opinions on an issue. At best, that's it.
Then you factor in a demographic they'd like to target primarily, and the opinions are now those of a relatively select few that could not take the poll seriously, not answer honestly, or just be morons.
When it comes to consulting Canadians about defense matters...has anybody here ever been contacted? I'm guessing not?
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I find it hilarious because ...isn't that why we elect members of Parliament? Those folks in the Opposition had to get enough support from ...well..... Canadians to have their viewpoint heard.
I feel as if the Govt de jure has forgotten that aspect of a Westminster style parliament. Its always so much easier when your view is the only one and you can rule and govern without differing opinions being expressed. Almost as if absolute governing power would be crucial in forcing your own view of utopia..... Wait a second
Halifax Tar
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I find it hilarious because ...isn't that why we elect members of Parliament? Those folks in the Opposition had to get enough support from ...well..... Canadians to have their viewpoint heard.
I feel as if the Govt de jure has forgotten that aspect of a Westminster style parliament. Its always so much easier when your view is the only one and you can rule and govern without differing opinions being expressed. Almost as if absolute governing power would be crucial in forcing your own view of utopia..... Wait a second
Did you just hurt yourself ? lol
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Did you just hurt yourself ? lol
Halifax Tar
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Snuggle in brother.
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Expect lavish spending in budget
Finance minister in survival mode - National Post - 6 Mar 2024 - JOHN IVISON
In nature, there are four psychological survival reactions: fight, flight, freeze and fawn.In politics, another can be added: spend.
Chrystia Freeland, the finance minister, has named April 16 as the date of the next federal budget. Since nothing much else is working when it comes to resurrecting the fortunes of the Liberal party — polls have the Conservatives between 15 and 20 points ahead — a finance minister in survival mode can be expected to turn the spending taps to gush.
The problem is the billions of dollars of new expenditure needed to shift the political dial could make an already grave fiscal situation much worse.
As a report issued by the Parliamentary Budget Officer on Tuesday makes clear, if the Canadian economy were a horse, it would be in danger of being boiled down for glue.
The PBO suggests that growth will remain “sluggish” — below one per cent, in part because high interest rates are restraining consumer spending and dampening the housing market.
(As an aside, the PBO said it expects lending rates to start falling in April. The Bank of Canada makes its policy decision on April 10, and the consumer price index is showing signs of returning to its two per cent target rate.)
But a cut on April 10 is unlikely to happen, since Tiff Macklem, the governor of the Bank of Canada, is likely going to want to see how much weeping gelignite Freeland pours on the fire before cutting rates.
Macklem told the House of Commons finance committee that large spending increases could get in the way of beating inflation back to its target level in the timeline the bank has laid out.
(The bank’s next policy decision is in June, another two months of elevated rates for which Canadians can blame the finance minister.)
The Liberal government has failed to live up to any of its fiscal guardrail promises in the past — the 2015 election pledge of three “modest short-term deficits” followed by a balanced budget; its next commitment was to lower the debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio every year.
The PBO report suggests the assurance that it would keep the current deficit at or below last spring’s budget projection of $40.1 billion will also be broken. The PBO estimates the 2023-24 deficit will be $46.8 billion. The latest Fiscal Monitor from the Department of Finance suggests why the government will overshoot its own target. It revealed that while revenues for the eight months to December were up $8 billion, program expenses rose by $18.6 billion.
“Assuming no new measures are introduced,” the PBO suggests the deficit will fall gradually to $16.9 billion by 2028-29 — but that is a big assumption.
The Liberals have promised to roll out dental care to all uninsured Canadians with family income under $90,000 next year, and while it has already earmarked $13 billion over five years, that is an expensive program.
Last week, the government took the first steps in rolling out pharmacare for Canadians, which, if the Liberals are serious about funding a national formulary, will come with a hefty price tag.
The government has also indicated it will reach the two per cent of GDP defence spending target for NATO members — a commitment that could cost an extra $18 billion a year.
Defence Minister Bill Blair said Monday that in his assessment, “we have got some work to do” to rebuild the Canadian Forces.
New opinion polls suggest the public is finally coming around to the idea of boosting defence spending to meet the NATO target. An Angus Reid Institute poll Tuesday said 53 per cent of Canadians want to see more defence spending, and when respondents were told about Donald Trump’s comment on pulling military support for NATO, that number jumped to 65 per cent.
This flies in the face of the Liberals’ instincts — in fact its efforts to “refocus” government spending saw it announce last week that defence spending will actually be cut by nearly $1 billion a year for the next three years.
Nonetheless, the government is under enormous pressure to deliver on the defence file and the apparent shift in public sentiment may spur it to respond.
The problem is that even spending that can genuinely be classed as “investment” will make a bad fiscal situation even worse.
The PBO sounded a particularly vexing alarm with its prediction that the debt servicing ratio — public debt charges relative to government revenues — will rise to 10.2 per cent this fiscal year. That means that $10 in every $100 of revenue will be spent on interest (compared, for example, with $6 of every $100 on defence).
Are we going bankrupt? No, Canada remains a vibrant $2-trillion economy. Is the federal government spending too much? Yes. Is our standard of living falling, relative to other rich countries? Yes.
Statistics Canada caused a stir with its latest GDP per capita numbers for the fourth quarter of 2023, which showed the fifth decline in six quarters. As Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne pointed out, GDP per capita is now below where it was in the fourth quarter of 2014 (adjusted for inflation), as growth in population outpaces economic growth.
Economist Stephen Gordon argued on X, formerly Twitter, that the situation is not as bleak as some have painted it when standard of living is measured by purchasing power. But no one denies Canada has a productivity problem that is contributing to the feeling of economic malaise. Statcan recently said investment per worker at Canadian firms declined by 20 per cent between 2006 and 2021.
Yet, the Liberals have grown the public service by one third and increased public spending by 40 per cent since coming to power. We should be more prepared than we are for the coming shocks caused by an aging population, climate change, artificial intelligence and a more dangerous geopolitical landscape.
As former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge told the Commons finance committee last fall, dealing with these problems will require spending a smaller share of revenues on current services.
But who has any confidence the Justin Trudeau government has the situation under control?
Certainly not Derek Holt, head of Capital Market Economics at Scotiabank. In a remarkable blog posting on the bank’s site, he said he is “deeply worried about public policy in my country.”
Bank economists are notoriously two-handed — “on the one hand ... but on the other.” Holt proved the existence of that rare phenomenon: a one-handed economist.
“Productivity is in a tailspin. A greater share of GDP is spent on here-today-gone-tomorrow current spending by governments and households than in a decade. Tax policy is uncompetitive. Business bashing has become commonplace by people who have never spent two seconds working in private industry .
“Changes to labour laws have benefited unions, while collective bargaining exercises are driving wage growth to the moon, despite collapsing productivity. Major sections of the economy are literally being taken over by the government, with recent examples being child care, dental care and now pharmacare. Do we get better quality outcomes in staterun health and education sectors? Tried visiting an ER lately? ’Nough said.”
This winter of discontent is unlikely to be relieved by more spending. Too many people feel the bill is being passed to future generations, and that the current generation is not getting value for money.
But the Liberals’ survival mode reflex is pretty much all they have left. Expect chickens in every pot, ponies in every home, rainbows and unicorns come April 16.
OldSolduer
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Bribery with our money. Utterly disgusting.
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By “work” he means making a budget cut appear to be a mathematical increase, somehow…
Some (most…all?) economists would call that a….recession…
So worse than the days of living under the Harper regime…sunny ways indeed.
No wonder Freeland authorized herself an additional $571 BILLION dollars to spend like drunken sailors…
ArmyRick
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Unbelievable, but looking at this brand of Liberals, yup. We can assume Singh will support this budget since he got his not so "Big win" with his half assed start to pharmacare (All for show, Jagmeet and you will fall harder than Trudeau next election).
Noticing how some things are timed to start in 2025, you know, when Trudeau wants your vote.
Noticing how some things are timed to start in 2025, you know, when Trudeau wants your vote.
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