by doggedlyright » 07/ 07/ 12 8:18 am
I see the Harperbot sees no evil and hears no evil.
We need to be quite honest about our current financial situation:
1. Only one province of the 10 and 3 territories will be running a surplus this year... Saskatchewan.
2. The federal debt sits at $663-billion and climbing each year by 10 billion
3. Total net provincial and territorial debt is $515-billion and climbing by 25 billion+ per year
4. Our provinces are on official/unofficial credit watch.
5. Ontario down graded twice in 3 years, New Brunswick was just recently downgraded, Nova Scotia is to be downgraded along with Quebec and Manitoba,
6. Debt serving charges ranks in the top three of expense line items on all our federal, provincial and municipal governments. In many cases it far outweighs health care and social services charges.
7. over 50% of any job in this country is either directly paid by a level of government or subsidized by some government program.
8. Our major urban centres are all technically bankrupt
9. Given that Canada is a federation, the Canadian government is on the hook for it all. The last province that hit the wall financially was Alberta in the mid-1930's. The federal government responded. Now imagine when 6 or 7 provinces face that wall, Do the feds let them fail, with catastrophic consequences for the credit rating and interest payments of every government? If they do bail them out and it tells each and every provincial treasurer they have a blank cheque and forget about financial prudence. This will have catastrophic consequences for debt ratings.
To top it off, our economy is a false one based on a crude price fixed by a cartel. Our manufacturing base is being destroyed each and every day thanks to governmenet seeking free trade but not free and fair trade agreements
The goverments certainly do not have a revenue problem. Unfortunately, our politicians at every level have proven over and over that they are in it for the money and benefits for themselves. Their continued economic practices prove they don't care about what legacy they leave behind. As long as the federal politicians get their exorbitant pensions and retire young they could care less about the after effects of their misrule. Given that politicans vote on their own salaries and benefits, one cannot expect competent governors of the public purse with this system.
Recently media stories only further cement this public view. Bev Oda retires after 8 years of service and she gets a penison of 54K+ and it gets topped up 10.4% each year thereafter with taxpayer dollars. It appears that this MP is being chased out of Ottawa for her actions.
The maintenance union in the Toronto District School Board excessively billing to the toon of hundreds of millions and we learn they have a slush fund that was used to aid only liberal and ndp minded politicans at the provincial and school board level. The school board and Dalton's government have been stonewwalling any action on these revelations.
Our system is broken. Our political parties have no strong leadership. Our country is doomed to the same as in Europe.
When the dam breaks and it will, I have no idea how the people will react. I certainly do not wish to be a politican, government employee or union leader when that time comes. It will come rather sooner than later.
