To the Editor:
Middle-class Canadians and all those working so hard just to get to the middle-class have been waiting a long time for some buoyancy in the economy to lift their prospects.
Stephen Harper says it’s all the fault of that nasty recession that sideswiped our economy and messed up all his government’s plans. But consider these facts:
• That recession arrived in late 2008 and lasted less than a year. But Canadians are still struggling – nearly six years now after the recession ended.
• When first elected in 2006, the Harper government inherited a large surplus, but quickly squandered Canada’s fiscal strength, putting the country back into deficit again BEFORE the recession;
• The recession made it worse, but it was Mr. Harper’s reckless government that put Canada in a weakened and vulnerable position;
• On Mr. Harper’s watch we’ve suffered poor economic growth, tepid job creation, faltering job quality, stagnant incomes and ballooning household debt.
• And now there’s a major downturn in the energy sector with more lost investment, jobs and exports – so much so that Mr. Harper has actually punted the entire federal budget into the next fiscal year.
This government has no credible agenda to drive greater economic growth. Growth is what’s needed to bolster the well-being of the middle-class. It’s also a key factor in balancing the government’s books.
But with an average annual growth rate of barely 1.7% (the worst of any Prime Minister in 80 years), Mr. Harper is forced to resort to a grab-bag of gimmicks to concoct the appearance of “balance” – especially since he has already pre-spent any margin he may have had on his ill-advised Income Splitting scheme for the wealthy.
So he lapses funding previously committed to veterans, security services and the fight against child pornography. He slashes environmental protection and other public safety programming. He sells off federal assets. He delays major investments in community infrastructure and new equipment for the military. He hikes taxes for five years in a row and rakes in an extra $5-billion from excessive Employment Insurance premiums.
None of these gimmicks are sustainable. Neither do they contribute to meaningful growth.
To truly deliver on the imperative of economic growth, the government should be increasing and accelerating federal support for community infrastructure. It should be tearing down barriers to all forms of post-secondary education and skills training. It should be investing in scientific research and innovation. It should be aggressively branding and marketing Canadian goods and services in global markets. And it should be working with provincial governments to reach a smart intersection between economic success and environmental integrity – because the latter is often the key to the former.
But there’s no such leadership from this threadbare government.
Ralph Goodale
Member of Parliament for Wascana
