WHAT'S THE PLAN TO DEAL WITH THE DEBT?
During a recession, government revenues typically go down and expenses go up. So the mere existence of a federal deficit at this time is not all that surprising.
What IS surprising is how big this Conservative deficit has become and how quickly the problem has ballooned out of control. The red-ink started at $2 billion last year, rising to $51 billion this year, and it will total something close to $200 billion over five years.
Stephen Harper says “not to worry”, it’s all just temporary, and somehow, it will magically “go away”. But everyone from his hand-picked Parliamentary Budget Officer to the Toronto-Dominion Bank say he’s wrong.
Here’s why:
First, long before there was any recession, the Harper government squandered Canada’s hard-earned financial security.
In 2006, the Conservatives inherited a booming economy and a $13 billion annual surplus. Instead of nurturing that strength, they spent it all. They even cancelled the “contingency reserves” that had been set aside as cushions against unexpected shocks.
So before the recession hit last fall, Canada was already – unnecessarily – in the red.
Worse still, while the rest of the world could see the trouble coming and was preparing for it, the Harper Conservatives were slow and negligent. They wasted time on a premature election campaign. And thereafter, they ordered Parliament not to reconvene until late January.
And all the while their story kept changing.
Last September, they claimed there would be no recession and no deficit. In November, they predicted four more federal surpluses. By January, they were admitting to a deficit of $64 billion over two years. But in June, their shortfall exploded to $170 billion over five years – at the least.
Meanwhile, more than 360,000 jobs have been lost.
The problem is not a deficit. The problem is obvious Conservative incompetence.
-30-
|
