Our Parliament has been on hiatus since early December 2008, the correct terminology being prorogued. Today is the day that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty addresses the House with a Budget that is predicting a $34 000 000 000 deficit in this fiscal year, and another $30 000 000 000 in the next year. This will take, they project, 5 years before we start writing in black ink again - but I think that we can all assume these are conservative figures, no pun intended.
According to the CBC, this is a breif layout of the Budget to be put forth;
It all seems pretty great, eh? So lets take the first few point by point.
- $7 000 000 000 for infrastructure spending, meaning that new roads, bridges, highways etc. will be built or repaired. $4 000 000 000of that going towards the Provinces and Cities of Canada, probably going straight into urban transit and trying to offset some of those operational and maintenance costs. Good stuff, our cities here in Canada are severely shorthanded when it comes to their Municipal responsibilities, being able to collect tax revenue only from property and property gains or from user-paid fares for transit service. A little injection of liquid funds will greatly help the situation there, but an even better solution is the protection of Canadian Municipalities, and the emancipation of the cities from the Provincial and Territorial yoke. That will all be laid out in a future document, though. Transport Minister John Baird said however, that each level of government would be expected to pay equal shares for these projects, a quite unreasonable request when dealing with the Municipalities who, as stated above, are in dire straits for cash. There is also talk of $1 000 000 000 of that going into a fund for immediate green or environmental infrastructure projects across Canada, [2] which in my own opinion is a tragically low number given the circumstances. Canada can and should show leadership in their commitment to environmental protection and sustainable, profitable infrastructure in the most opportune time; when jobs are desperately needing to be created in the construction and trade industries. In December 2008 alone, Canada shed more that 34 000 jobs, many coming from the construction sector. [3]
- $2 000 000 000 for social housing! Thats the one that I was looking for the most in this budget. But the very distressing figure tied into this one is that it is less money than what we are spending on the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games! Actually, quite a bit less, with the Vancouver Olympic Committee spending in the ballpark of $3 500 000 000on the Games. The City of Vancouver has also renegged on its promises to create affordable housing in Vancouver prior to the Games being held.
Since the Olympic bid process began, over 1,000 units of affordable SRO housing units have either been converted to other uses or shut down permanently. [4]
The term SRO is an acronym for Single Residency Occupancy rooms, somewhat like hotels that the homeless would in a crude reality 'compete for' in the inner cities of Vancouver. If one has ever watched Will Smith in the Pursuit of Happyness, that would be the best visual representation of what we are talking about here. VANOC even went as far as to turn down a request for a $1 Homelessness levy tax on Olympic tickets sold, to be matched by the provincial and federal Governments, as well as a renegging of the 3 200 unit promise for developing affordable social housing to address the socially-sustainable goal of the 2010 Games.
The rest of the points are fairly minor, in comparison, or I simply dont know anything worth saying about them to justify including an in depth analysis of them. We all know the importance of our farmers in Canada, and Im sure that we have all noticed the slow creeping increase in the price of bread loaves in our Safeways and Loblaws. Some interesting notes that I find in my pocketbook shows the statistics regarding our global grain stocks in rapid decline; 128 days in 1987, down to 116 days in 2000, and currently at 53 days if the world was to stop producing grain at this moment. These figures come with no source that I can remember or take away from the notes, so research independantly before taking as final truths.
(Edit + Addition)
The issue of tax cuts is up in the air for myself. For one, if I was to recieve a tax credit from the Feds, it would go immediately to paying down my debt and NOT to creating new stimulus and NOT going back into the economic market places. I think that it would largely be, not a waste, but a misuse of the monies in the hands of the Government to spread it out amongst Canadians who will most likely not inject those funds into the economy, therefore defeating the purpose of the credit.
And so as we speak, CPAC returns from adjournment for the presentation of the Budget. I will do my absolute best to take a bite into the document myself and report back to my loyal, currently non-existant readers!
Thomas RB Miller, Winnipeg Manitoba---
[1] CBC.ca Newsreel, http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/01/26/budgetadvancer.html
[2] Vancouver Sun, http://www.vancouversun.com/Entertainment/Budget+targets+infrastructure/1219136/story.html
[3] Journal of Commerce, http://www.joconl.com/article/id32020
[4] Dissident Voice radical newsletter, http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/05/vancouver-2010-olympics-social-sustainability-legacy-under-fire/
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