The 2012 federal budget, which purports to deliver “jobs, growth and long-term prosperity,” does nothing of the kind. Make no mistake, this is an austerity budget— spending cuts outpace new measures 7:1— that worsens income and inter-generational inequality, destroys jobs and locks in a slow growth, high unemployment future. Let’s…
Read more
Marc, Andrew and Toby have posted substantial analyses of yesterday’s federal budget and I have some comments in today’s Hamilton Spectator. My two cents about the budget’s economic forecasts follow. Table 2.1 envisions a 7.5% unemployment rate this year, slightly above last year’s rate of 7.4%. That seems like an admission of…
Read more
Statistics Canada reported today that economic growth dropped to a bare 0.1% in January. The New Year began with Rio Tinto locking out former Alcan employees at Alma, Quebec, and Caterpillar locking out former Electro Motive employees at London, Ontario. Closing these major facilities contributed to cutting growth in durable-goods…
Read more
The Budget justifies raising the age of eligibility for OAS and GIS on the grounds that the long-term fiscal sustainability of the program is being undermined by rising life expectancy. No estimates of savings are provided. They will be very modest. Given that average life expectancy at age 65 is…
Read more
Budgets are all about choices. With unemployment and underemployment still at very high levels and a shrinking middle-class, the federal government could and should have laid the basis for a sustained and broadly shared economic recovery. The federal government should be taking a larger and stronger role in making the…
Read more
The Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives believes that all Canadians will pay the price for a federal budget that will result in significant job losses, weaker environmental protection, and unnecessary cuts to cherished public services. Once the government’s three rounds of spending cuts are fully implemented, they will have resulted…
Read more
In contrast to this year’s AFB 2012, today’s federal budget is decidedly not a budget for the rest of us. In fact, regular Canadians won’t see themselves at all in this budget. Instead, the country will be dragged into austerity, not only now but in the future. And none of…
Read more
First off, the 2012 federal budget makes no upfront claim to be a budget. Indeed, the cover states only “Economic Action Plan 2012: Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity.” While we have been accustomed in recent years to budgets with their own titles, this one does not actually say “Budget” anywhere….
Read more
Amid the current climate of cutbacks and austerity, there is some good news. The Government of Nova Scotia, pursuant with the recommendations of the Minimum Wage Review Committee, will be increasing the province’s minimum wage as of April 1st. The 1.5 percent increase, from $10.00 to $10.15 per hour, is…
Read more
Perhaps the most striking feature of today’s Ontario budget is how close it comes to last month’s Drummond report. Drummond’s preferred scenario for 2017-18 was $134.7 billion of provincial revenue, $117.5 billion of program spending and $15.3 billion of interest payments. By comparison, today’s budget envisions $135.9 billion of revenue,…
Read more