Kevin Page - Our Hero

Tough as Nails

Some of my friends say, Kevin Page, the outgoing Parliamentary Budget Officer is their hero. Others say he should be Prime Minister which might be pushing it a bit but...he is one of the good guys and that is for sure.

When his term is up later this year, Harper and his gang will take their time in filling the position. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see them do away with the position.

Government in Canada has become more secretive than any of us can remember, and I have been around longer than I'd like to think. Auditor General reports have always been entertaining but as the Parliamentary Budget Officer, Page brought it to a whole new level.

The Conservatives hated him. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty once described him as "unbelievable, unreliable and incredible" The truth hurt Jim.and chipped away at their bunker mentality.

On his way out, Page sent the CBC's As It Happens a list of key skills and characteristics needed when applying to be his replacement. To do the job, the next Parliamentary Budget Officer should have a knowledge of:

• early childhood development
• the art of magic
• smoke and mirrors
• numeracy
• primary education level

The successful candidate should also have a good background such as:

• decades of experience toiling away under senior public service and cabinet ministers in finance or treasury departments whose primary interest is to advance their personal careers at the expense of the democratic and financial health of the country

Page also suggested that anyone taking the job "should be ready for retirement because the successful candidate will be unemployable after one mandate."

* Thanks to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, used  without their permission 

How do you like those corporate tax cuts so far, Jim?

Stephen Harper and his blue meanies tell us they have the economy in hand. Don't forget, Canada's Action Plan saved us from the kind of problems experienced by Greece and Spain. Stephen reminds us that we are really lucky that socialist Tom Mulcair isn't running things .

Our Prime Minister is so proud of his record he took it upon himself to lecture other world leaders about the strength of his economic policies. Praise the Lord, Harper has saved us all from a fate worse than death.

At least that is what the Conservatives like to tell us.

That is why I am simply amazed that this story, I found tucked away on the back pages of the Regina Leader Post, isn't front page news. How could it not be?

Ottawa's deficit for the current fiscal year is now $6.2 billion. I guess that in and of itself, really doesn't grab people's attention. We are getting used to surging deficits despite the soothing tone of political leaders who tell us "We are fine."

The real story is that $6.2 billion is pretty much double what it was at the end of the previous month.

The Finance Department quietly announced recently that the August deficit was $3.2 billion, slightly more than the $3.1 billion recorded in the same month of 2011 but, corporate tax revenues fell by 13.5 per cent decline compared with August 2011 and a 16 per cent decline from $2.1 billion in July of this year.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who said recently he may need to revise downward growth projections for the rest of the year, is due to issue a midterm report card on the government's books in a few weeks.

How are those corporate tax cuts working out for out so far Jim? I can just hear him saying, "Oh don't worry, the middle class will pick up the slack"

Oh by the way, personal income tax receipts are up 3.8 per cent for the year so far.

The Harper Economic Record

Jim Flaherty would have Canadian’s believe that the retread budget and the fiscal policy he intends to inflict on us Canadians will save us from another recession and bring prosperity back to the country. The only way to do that he says is through cutting fat in Ottawa. When he talks about bloated Ottawa administrations somehow I don’t think he is talking about the PMO. Don’t expect cuts there.

Flaherty expects Canadians to believe that the Blue Meanies alone can save us all from financial oblivion. I think he expects us to believe that if it wasn’t for him, Harper and the rest of the Blue Man group we would have gone the way of Ireland long ago.

Now he boasts that the Conservative policies will bring us out of deficit spending by 2015. A year earlier that expected. No one actually believes he will but, it gets good media coverage and Canadians are a forgiving lot. After all this government has the new and daunting task of keeping the spendthrift socialists away from the door of the Bank of Canada vault.

What Flaherty forgets is that without the unnecessary reduction he made to the GST, we wouldn’t need to make the cuts he is now suggesting are crucial.

The other thing that Harper and Flaherty don’t ever want Canadians to look closely at is what the Conservative financial record really is.

Brian Mulroney in 1993 had run up a $38 billion deficit. Canadians were shocked. 

Under Liberal leadership, Jean Chretien and Paul Martin had beaten the deficient and by 2006 when he lost the election the Government was running a $16 Billion surplus.

Under the Harper/Flaherty regime the deficit is up over $55 Billion.

And these guys ran on their economic record. We must be really stupid.

Harper Treats Pension Reform Like the Environment

I notice that Harper's Conservatives are taking the same approach to the much needed Canada Pension Plan reform that they do the the environment. And, why not? Ignoring the problem works for them and after all, the chickens won't come home to roost until this bunch are long gone.
Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says this is not the time for an overhaul of the pension system. The problem is of course is that there never us a "good" time to cough up the extra cash needed and by the time the shit hits the fan, I predict the government in power, whatever party is in power will say, "If Harper had dealt with this at the time it could have been fixed but...we are too far down the road and we just can't afford to do in now."
Boomers, most of whom are still working will start to put real pressure on the plan as they retire and tap into the fund. When the bills come, it will be our kids who will pay for Harper's inaction.
The Harper government claims to have been working on what they said was serious pension reform for 18 months and what we get instead of reform is just more inaction.
To be honest, I didn't really expect much more out of this government but I had hoped that, just perhaps, the provinces would step up. Six of the ten provinces supported action but unfortunately Alberta and Quebec supported by the Saskatchewan Wall government worked against reform.   

Flaherty Sucks up to Business Again

In 2008, the Conservative government set up the Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board, an independent body created  to set premium rates and to take the politics out of the process. At least that is how it is supposed to work.



That board which don't forget is a Conservative appointed board, called for an increase to premiums of almost 10 per cent on January 1st.  


Before anyone could act on the recommendation a private member's bil proposed by Bloc Quebecois MP Yves Lessard,  and hit the floor of the house. This bill, supported by the NDP, would have allowed anyone who has worked at least 350 hours, as opposed to the current minimum of 420 hours, to qualify for EI benefits. It also would increase the maximum weekly benefits to 60 per cent of earning, up from 55 per cent.


The  bill that would have allowed more jobless Canadians to collect employment insurance premiums at higher rate was defeated in a Commons vote Wednesday after Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff  made sure enough Liberals defeated the bill and he climbed on the finance minister's mantra about the cost of the proposed bill. 

MPs voted 147-124 to defeat the bill, which until Ignatieff's public change of heart had been given a strong chance of winning approval in principle and being sent to a committee for further study.

Once the private member's bill was out of the way, thanks to the Liberals, Flaherty announced that the he was going to ignore the Board recommendation and that the 2011 increase will be limited to five cents per every $100 of insurable earnings. He says, he limited the recommended increase after "listening and consulting" with business owners. 


What everyone conveniently  seems to forget is that the EI fund has a surplus. The government owes the Employment Insurance Fund over $60 billion. Most of that money was taken from the fund when the Liberal were in power.  


I guess neither Flaherty, nor Harper, nor Ignatieff thought to consult with the people who use the plan, the unemployed. My sense is that their message would have been slightly different from the incessant whining of business community leaders.


What really confuses me is why people actually vote for those guys.