Government finance
(Vancouver) In the wake of Tuesday’s Throne Speech signaling major cuts in public spending, a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) cautions that cuts will only make the recession worse.
There is still an air of disbelief in Canada about the severity of the current global recession — now widely accepted as the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s — both as it is affecting Canada and as it is playing out around the world.
Perhaps it is because recession came later to Canada and is just beginning to hit hard. Or maybe it is because government leaders and media keep assuring Canadians that we are in good shape to weather the storm and the worst will be over "soon."
One of the scariest aspects of the current economic crisis is that its perpetrators have been by far its chief beneficiaries. Their barbaric neoliberal policies, disastrous financial practices, and subservient governments, far from being discredited, are being rewarded -- both financially and politically.
An improved money system could provide governments in Canada and elsewhere with abundant funding, not only to enable us to pull out of the current recession, but also to meet the whole range of social needs that confront us — from social justice and human welfare to environmental restoration and protection.
Halifax, Nova Scotia – Today’s launch of the interim report of the government’s “independent” review of the province’s finances is an exercise in cynical political manipulation, says a new report issued today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Nova Scotia Office. NDP governments have a history of releasing dire financial reports immediately after their election in order to dampen the expectations of their own members, the public, social movements and trade unions, says the report’s author, Saint Mary’s University professor Larry Haiven.
The Conservative itch to cut government can't stay repressed for too
long, even when they are in government and in charge of a full-blown
economic crisis.
In mid-June, Finance Minister Flaherty went
off to meetings with the G8 talking up the idea that it was "time to
have a discussion on how to disengage from the fiscal stimulus." Last
week in Italy, Prime Minister Harper reluctantly agreed with other
world leaders that things were still too shaky to start cutting back on
government help.
On the surface, Enterprise Saskatchewan’s call for a 10 percent flat tax seems straightforward. Saskatchewan must engage in a “race-to-the-bottom” in order to compete with Alberta.
However, a cursory glance at other countries that have instituted their own flat tax proposals should be cause for concern.