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Harper delivers economic report Monday
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by albertacowpoke | September 28, 2009 at 02:29 am
106 views | 18 Recommendations | 5 comments
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper presented the Conservative Party's economic update in Saint John, New Brunswick this morning.
Earlier this year the Harper government received approval for its stimulus plan, promising to provide periodic economic updates throughout the year. This was one of the prerequisites required by the Liberal Party before supporting the government. The New Democratic Party and the BLOC Quebecois did not support the stimulus plan.
When parliament returned this fall, the Conservatives introduced a Ways and Means motion which extended the Employment Insurance entitlement period and the Home Improvement Tax Credit. This motion was opposed by the Liberals but supported by the NDP and Bloc Quebecois.
The Economic report to be issued personally by the Prime Minister today, is expected to outline how and where the stimulus money has been spend.
The Liberal Party claims that only 12% of the Stimulus package has been spend. It emphasizes that this should have created 120,000 new jobs, while 178,000 jobs have been lost during the same period.
This economic report could, again, trigger an election. The Liberals have announced that they will no longer support the Harper government. It remains to be seen how the New Democratic Party will react. The New Democrats hold the balance of power in parliament.
Harper's update pointed out that his government had already committed 90% of the stimulus funding for this year. This has given the green light to 7500 infrastructure and housing projects. Over 4000 of these projects have started during the first six months of the two year plan.
Harper said that his government had reduced the tax burden on Canadian families and that work to extend the Employment Insurance benefits of long tenured workers.
Pointing to stimulus measures introduced by his government, Harper said Ottawa had already committed 90 per cent of the stimulus funding for this fiscal year, giving the green light to some 7,500 infrastructure and housing projects. More than 4,000 of these projects have started during the first six months of the two-year plan.
"Our efforts are starting to bear fruit...we see stabilization and the early beginning of a recovery," Harper said.
He said the government had reduced the tax burden on families and businesses, and continues to work towards extending employment insurance benefits for long-tenured workers.
Looking to the bigger picture, Harper said Canada has a solid, long-term fiscal position, which allowed the government to bring in "one of the largest stimulus packages in the G7 and to do so while retaining the lowest debt and deficit levels."
But he stressed that that Canada "was not out of the woods yet."
"Far too many Canadians are still out of work, too many families are suffering hardship, and just as Canada was dragged into the global recession through no fault of our own, our recovery could be derailed by events beyond our borders," Harper said.
The Opposition Liberals had already decided to vote non confidence on the Harper government, before this economical update was given. The tabled a non-confidence motion, which will be voted on this coming Thursday. New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton would have preferred that this update was released in Parliament but he will support the government on Thursday.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper will deliver his government's latest economic update in Saint John on Monday.
The Conservatives' minority government was able to win approval for its economic stimulus plan in the House of Commons last spring by promising to deliver a series of economic report cards.
The latest update is sure to be watched closely since the government is dealing with the largest budget deficit in Canadian history.
Earlier this month, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the deficit this year will be more than $5 billion higher than originally thought, moving up to a projected $55.9 billion from $50.2 billion.
Parliament returns to work on Monday with the Liberals threatening a no-confidence vote and the NDP holding the balance of power.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (5)
at 05:28 on September 29th, 2009
Good stuff AC
at 05:34 on September 29th, 2009
Yep Iggy is having problems within his own party. Guess he wants to be PM real bad.
at 07:27 on September 29th, 2009
Consumer capitalism is doomed. The trends that could not last forever seem to be coming to an end. Consumers cannot continue to go deeper into debt. Consumption cannot continue to take up more and more of the GDP. Capital investment and profits cannot go down much further. Foreigners will not continue to finance excess consumption until the Second Coming — at least not at the current dollar price. And fiat paper money will not continue to outperform the real thing — gold — forever.
The industrialized world will have to find a new economic model, for it can no longer hope to spend and borrow its way to prosperity. This is not a cyclical change, but a structural one that will take a long time.
Structural reforms — that is, changing the way an economy functions — do not happen overnight. The machinery of collectivized capitalism resists change of any sort. The Fed tries to buoy the old model with cheaper and cheaper money. Government comes forward with multi billion-dollar spending programs to try to simulate real demand.
As Paul Volcker put it, “It will all have to be adjusted someday.”
Increases in GDP are out, wealth-being is over, quality of life is the new model to go with forward.
at 07:54 on September 29th, 2009
I thought that quality of life is what our lives were all about? Did I miss something on the way toward aging?
at 09:29 on September 29th, 2009
The difference is that the economy for the last 50 years was geared to improvement of wealth, but not to quality of life. That is the model we all should heading for. Hope this is well understood.