This report finds that public spending cuts could deeply damage Newfoundland and Labrador’s economic and social well-being, and presents evidence showing how the province can avoid the kind of austerity measures destabilizing economies the world over.
Government finance
This report shows that Ontario hasn't returned to pre-recession economic health. Austerity measures are compounding the problem, effectively slowing economic growth. Trish Hennessy and CAW economist Jim Stanford note that the province's deficit predictions were wildly overstated and that the employment rate hasn't returned to the pre-recession rates. They maintain that creating jobs, not austerity measures, should be Ontario's top priority.
Ce communiqué est composé de trois documents:
The Alternative Federal Budget 2013: Doing Better Together shows how growth-killing austerity can be replaced by a plan that strengthens the economy, leads to a better quality of life for all Canadians, and eliminates the deficit by 2016.
This release has three parts:
2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the entry into service of Canada’s Sea King helicopters, which despite their age and associated risks are still being relied upon by the Canadian Forces.
Twenty years have passed since Prime Minister Jean Chrétien cancelled the contract for EH-101s that were supposed to replace the Sea Kings. Ten years have passed since the Paul Martin government signed a contract for the CH-148 Cyclones with Sikorsky – and not a single fully operational Cyclone has been delivered to date.
Underinvestment in infrastructure is not a crisis but a chronic problem in Canada. This study reveals the extent of that underinvestment over the past four decades and makes recommendations on how to close the infrastructure funding gap.
The cumulative effect of infrastructure underfunding means Canada is missing $145 billion worth of infrastructure. It would require an additional $20-30 billion a year for ten years on top of current spending to return infrastructure funding to historic levels.
Inside this issue:
Just like the ice and snow that refuse to go away this April, the provincial government is frozen into a perennial cycle of cutting revenue and then scrambling to make up for the shortfall. Uncertainty around whether we will have yet another flood this year calls for some pretty rigorous scrambling. Flooding is turning out to be this government’s millstone, costing over $1 billion last year alone. Future flood-protection investments are predicted to require an additional $1 billion.
Budgets are about choices that reflect a government's values and priorities. The Alternative Federal Budget shows us what the federal government could do if it decided to seriously tackle Canadians’ largest social, economic, and environmental concerns.
This series of infographics illustrates some of these concerns and shows in a concrete and compelling way that by working together, we can do better.
Click on each infographic to enlarge:
The botched procurement of F-35 stealth fighter jets has attracted much attention, and rightly so at $40-billion and counting. But the F-35s are not the ugliest example of Defence Department incompetence. That dubious honour belongs to the Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopter, which, as Defence Minister Peter MacKay himself admitted last July, is “the worst procurement in the history of Canada.”