Liberals invest in the future
I have just watched Finance Minister Bill Morneau deliver his budget and think he has done a great job. As a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, he gave me hope for the future for Canadian families. Funding for education, research, technology and innovation is vitally important. Students and scientists will keep us in the forefront not only for our own economy, but internationally.
Years ago, when I was in business, we frequently consulted the long-form census for detailed information on Canadians — all kinds of useful statistics. Morneau has had the great good sense to restore it, along with money for infrastructure — housing, transit, shelters.
Our health care is precious. One only has to read a book like Life Before Medicare, published in 1995, telling the heartbreaking personal experiences of Canadians who lived then, to realize the immense gratitude we all owe Tommy Douglas and the extreme battle to establish our health care when even many physicians and insurance companies were strongly against it. Morneau appreciates our valuable system and, being aware of shortcomings in services to seniors, indigenous people, veterans and some others, is raising funding.
All in all, Morneau’s optimism and caring outlook create enthusiasm and hope. I genuinely believe that Justin Trudeau’s “sunny” outlook and the exceptional competence of his ministers assures that, in spite of a monster deficit, we truly face a decade ahead of constant progress and a brighter future. Shirley Bush, Toronto
“Picture the Canadian economy as being in cardiac fibrillation. The Liberals have applied the paddles to jolt it back to life.” GARY MOONEY, PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY
The budget will not have much of a permanent positive effect on the Canadian economy. The Liberals are failing to come to grips with the real problem that has so damaged that economy: For three decades, a succession of corporate-owned right-wing politicians have spent their time in office cutting investment in people and infrastructure to fund massive tax cuts for their rich corporate sponsors. We now have among the lowest federal corporate tax rates in the world.
The excuse was that this would stimulate investment and create jobs. But they didn’t make those tax cuts conditional on investment and job creation. As a result, corporate executives, being no fools, have continued to move jobs to the Third World, where they can pay slave wages and where there are no tiresome environmental and worker health and safety regulations to bother about. Now, our industrial base is mostly gone.
Two measures might have helped: a review of the corporate tax cuts of the last 30 years and their conversion to a program to reward investment and job creation; and the imposition of duties on the merchandise of any corporations that decide to play hardball and register overseas.
All I see in this new budget is a continuation of the current ridiculously low corporate tax rate with no demand for payback in the form of secure, well-paying jobs for Canadians. Stephen Langevin, Toronto Rona Ambrose remarked, “We are now on the brink of causing long-term damage to our economy. Where is this money coming from? How are we going to pay back the debt?”
Lest anyone forget, let’s review just one of many reasons that Canadians swept the Conservatives out of office last election. When they took office in 2006 the Conservatives inherited a Liberal budget surplus of $14 billion, which they turned into an additional $150 billion of debt over the ensuing decade.
Massive cuts in GST, personal taxes and, most notably, corporate taxes effectively “emptied Ottawa’s wallet” by an estimated $45 billion annually (Eugene Lang, the Star, Dec. 27, 2013).
The track record on corporate tax cuts has been a monumental failure. That money went straight into the pockets of the 1 per cent, and corporations continued layoffs, relocations and plant closures more than ever before.
Justin Trudeau inherited a financial mess that was the direct result of the Conservatives’ fiscal policy for a decade. Correcting our economy will take time, money and prudent review of all sources of government revenues and expenditures. Keilder Glen, Port Hope, Ont. The biggest hypocrite of all is Rona Ambrose, who decried the budget because of the deficit and complained about the taxes. The government couldn’t possibly undo all the “tax savings” that we have experienced over the last generation of costcutting governments, but it sounds to me like it has done a pretty good job of starting to undo the damage.
Yes, the deficit will increase the national debt that will be put upon our children and grandchildren. But the cuts created the deficit, so we can put the blame on Ambrose’s Conservatives. Stephen Bloom, Toronto There is a disconnect when recent polls show Canadians prioritize tax cuts over everything else. Do we still believe that tax cuts create jobs when a decade of tax cuts, resulting in a loss of tens of billions in revenue annually, resulted in more profits for corporations and few jobs created? A middle-class society for all is not created with tax cuts but with the pooling of taxes to provide goods, service and financial security for the people. Salmon Lee, Mississauga A simple solution would be for the Liberals to restore the two percentage points Stephen Harper cut from the GST and dedicate that estimated $14 billion a year to infrastructure spending. This way the deficit would actually shrink as the economic activity and jobs created would generate increased tax revenue without raising any other taxes. Is it a hard sell and against political orthodoxy? Possibly, but so were deficits before Trudeau won the election by promising to use them to increase infrastructure spending.
He should use his political capital to push this as a responsible solution and convince the public, as Paul Martin did in the 1990s, to reduce the deficit. Eric Watson, Etobicoke Picture the Canadian economy as being in cardiac fibrillation. The Liberals have applied the paddles to jolt it back to life. Gary Mooney, Prince Edward County I agree with most of Morneau’s budget, but I don’t understand one thing. Paying for the programs will require the government to borrow money from a variety of private banks and issue bonds, etc. The federal government will, of course, have to pay interest on those loans, which adds a tremendous amount to the size of the national debt.
Mr. Morneau knows he can borrow the money from the Bank of Canada interest-free, but refuses to do so, insisting it would be inflationary to do so. I fail to understand why, given that the amount borrowed would be the same in either case. The Bank of Canada is owned by the people of Canada, so the money would be paid back to the people. Rick Tufts, Toronto Overlooked in this budget is any concrete promise to increase health transfers to the provinces to compensate for costs from recent commitments by Immigration Minister John McCallum. He plans to admit 55,800 refugees this year, as well as 80,000 persons under the family reunification program — including some 20,000 parents and grandparents. Many of these older people will require medical care in the future.
New refugees are covered by OHIP. However, Ontario hospital budgets have been frozen for four years, and only increased by 1 per cent this year. The physician budget is also effectively frozen at an unrealistic level.
Therefore, in fairness to provincial governments, to health care providers and to patients already in line awaiting consultations and surgical procedures, Ottawa should stop making promises with other people’s money. It should pledge to pay physicians and hospitals directly for several years for treating the refugees and migrants.
Otherwise, due to this further strain on resources, the public will be affected and access to health care will rapidly decline. Dr. Charles S. Shaver, Ottawa Widespread panic, alarm bells, wringing of hands, gnashing of teeth, all over the “monstrous deficit,” which is somehow going to sink Canada into debtor oblivion worse than Greece?
Yes, good governments must spend money: to repair infrastructure, on essential services, health care and education, for example. Our deficit is not a function of spending; it’s caused by revenue shortfalls. The reduction of the GST sent us into deficit initially. Then there was the (temporary) drop in oil prices.
Further, the percentage of government tax revenue from corporations has plunged to a fraction of what it was, due to the use of foreign tax-haven nations to hide record profits made in Canada. Deficit=Revenue minus Expenditures. D. Scott Barclay, Georgetown The Star’s budget editorial hit the political nail squarely on its head by highlighting the large increase in child benefits to lower income families, and concluding: “If only for this, his budget deserves high marks.” If anything, that is an understatement as this budget move is easily the most significant move to eradicate child poverty in Canada that this country has ever seen. By doing so the Trudeau government deserves enormous credit. Canada has become a more just society. Simon Rosenblum, Toronto I am utterly infuriated by the Star’s glowing review of the budget. Why defend a plan that, as per your own example, will provide $750 of tax money to an already comfortable middle class family earning $170,000 a year? At the same time it promises no help to retired seniors who can barely make ends meet. Sil Viola, Thornhill Did anyone do the calculation on what some families will receive in child benefits under Trudeau’s budget? One family, with 11 children, that just arrived in Ontario could receive a minimum benefit from Canadian taxpayer of $59,400. Per year. How can we afford this? Where is the incentive to work? I see our wonderful country going down a slippery slope. Claudine Hodgson, Dunchurch, Ont. Let’s not forget that this is a federal budget with vast, national implications. To paraphrase John F. Kennedy’s famous saying, we should be asking what the budget will do for our country, rather than what it will do for us as individuals. Salvatore (Sal) Amenta, Stouffville