Ottawa weighs asset sale to avoid deficit

[Bryan]

I was hoping he meant the CBC.

[Vancouver King]

Are you suggesting that a Harper conservative is like the Rae NDP?

I am suggesting the record speaks for itself:

$12 billion dollar inherited surplus squandered

$3 billion dollar contingency fund eliminated

asset disposals at depressed prices contemplated

This would make the most prolifigate NDP regime blush.

[jdobbin]

As to the idea that the federal government is selling when the market is low, a government is not in the business to turn a profit. It should sell any unnecessary assets at fair market value. Secondly, real estate prices in Canada have not fallen like equity prices or like US real estate.

Also, selling assets is no financial trick to make a deficit disappear. Anybody who wants to can easily see what is happening. If Flaherty wants to and feels that politics requires it, there are much better and easier ways to hide a government budget deficit.

I think the point is that Flaherty runs to selling assets to help him with budgets. I have no problem selling the CN Tower. Just don't sell it and the land around it in a giveaway out of desperation.

[cybercoma]

Does the 407 make life better or worse?

Worse. It encourages commuters to travel by automobile which raises atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and contributes to pollution in Toronto.

[OddSox]

Worse. It encourages commuters to travel by automobile which raises atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and contributes to pollution in Toronto.

Yes, but it does make them pay for it!!!

[August1991]

Worse. It encourages commuters to travel by automobile which raises atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and contributes to pollution in Toronto.

A road where people have to pay for its use is bad for the environment?

Meanwhile, the federal government taxes us all to build a Trans Canada Highway that we all can use freely, at any time, without paying a fee.

Free roads through taxation? That's like having free booze through provincial liquor commissions. "Let's tax everyone, use the money to buy booze and then let anyone come and take booze when they want it."

That's what we do with roads. We tax everyone, build them and then let anyone use them for free.

The idea is crazy.

[OddSox]

That's what we do with roads. We tax everyone, build them and then let anyone use them for free.

I've read that truck traffic is heavily subsidized in comparison to rail - especially in terms of highway maintenance costs due to truck traffic.

[DFCaper]

I don't think selling off assets really stops a budget deficit overall, it just prevents a cash flow deficit.

With an idiot like Flaherty as Finance Minister, I guess this move is as good as it gets. I am still surprised that a man as smart as Harper left that clown as Finance minister. Didn't he destroy enough of Harris' legacy.

If you think sending money to Spain to drive on a highway in Canada, then.... we likely won't agree on much else.

I just wish that Conservatives were Conservative with money... Would make it easier for me to support them

[Argus]

To think we could have been the envy of the world in the midst of this financial storm if only Harper and Co. and not taken the decisions to squander a $12 billion surplus, eliminate a $3 billion contingency fund and drain the treasury with questionable GST reductions.

So now we are reduced to fire sale asset disposals - truly an amazing performance yet somehow a fitting commentary on this govt's finance record.

I remain in awe of the level of sheepdom which can take an absurd political argument - ie, government should tax us for billions and billions more than it has any foreseeable need for - just cause they can - and create a bizarre mythos out of it which suggests those governments which don't tax us extra are "wasting" that money - or potential money - or whatever.

The Tories didn't "squander" that money. They simply lowered taxes because they didn't think they needed the money. The money itself was left in the hands of those who earned it - ie, me (not you I'm guessing). They didn't "drain the treasury" they simply didn't forceably take more money from the taxpayers (again, I'm guessing NOT you) than they actually needed.

There is no reason why the government needs that money, even now. It can easily avoid a deficit by cutting some of the silly frill programs it's added over the last few years - including arts funding.

As for asset disposal - government should not be in the business of doing anything that private industry can do better. Our governments are involved in far too many ventures which are unnecessary and unneeded. By all means, dispose of some.

[Vancouver King]

...- ie, government should tax us for billions and billions more than it has any foreseeable need for -

Forseeable need? Failing to forsee what was coming is at the core of this problem for Tories, or, more ominously, given the party's haste to jump into the last election, Harper did realize his attempts to bribe the electorate with out of control spending and GST cuts had severely limited his govts ability to respond to what was surely coming.

A failure to forsee is incompetence, a hurried election to cover fiscal mistakes is sacrifcing the national good for party politics. Either way it's fiscal mismangement. Even a hopeless hack like you should realize that.

[Argus]

Forseeable need? Failing to forsee what was coming is at the core of this problem for Tories,

NOBODY foresaw what was coming, or when. Certainly we didn't hear a peep out of the Liberals or NDP or BQ. The Tories at least started to tighten finance regulations a while back.

[Sir Bandelot]

I just wish that Conservatives were Conservative with money... Would make it easier for me to support them

They are conservative with money... except when it comes to lining the pockets of their friends

[Vancouver King]

NOBODY foresaw what was coming, or when. Certainly we didn't hear a peep out of the Liberals or NDP or BQ. The Tories at least started to tighten finance regulations a while back.

What drivel. You heard plenty from Liberals about the folly of weakening our financial position by election inspired GST cuts and spending - you were mesmerized listening to Harper/Flaherty chanting their 'no deficit' mantra - a slogan that kicks off a post-election list of Tory lies.

Who knows, perhaps times will get so tough that federal civil servants like you are asked to rollback bloated remuneration. With your views you must be a big hit around the water cooler.

[noahbody]

They are conservative with money... except when it comes to lining the pockets of their friends

I'm guessing you're an NDP'er who is a devoted follower of Laytonism. Or maybe you're a Green Party supporter. Could you please elaborate on how the Conservative government is lining the pockets of their friends? Something more than banks and corporations are their friends because Jack said so.

[Sir Bandelot]

I'm guessing you're an NDP'er who is a devoted follower of Laytonism. Or maybe you're a Green Party supporter. Could you please elaborate on how the Conservative government is lining the pockets of their friends? Something more than banks and corporations are their friends because Jack said so.

No, I'm a neo-cynical anarchist

[Vancouver King]

They are conservative with money... except when it comes to lining the pockets of their friends

Hard to say what bothers them the most, another minority making it a challenge for a full session at the trough, or Obamaphobia - isolating Tories as the last nest of neocons on the planet.

[Argus]

What drivel. You heard plenty from Liberals about the folly of weakening our financial position by election inspired GST cuts and spending -

Excuse me, genius, but were these the Liberals who made over $80 billion in election promises last election? THOSE Liberals?

Who knows, perhaps times will get so tough that federal civil servants like you are asked to rollback bloated remuneration. With your views you must be a big hit around the water cooler.

Actually it's a wine fountain now, and we don't do a lot of talking because of the live orchestra music every day which serenades us while we nap.

[Argus]

No, I'm a neo-cynical anarchist

Who kinda wishes he'd finished high school

[Sir Bandelot]

Who kinda wishes he'd finished high school

Been drinking this morning?

[Topaz]

Perhaps Harper will finally realize why the Libs cut military spending to pay off the debt and now Harper is trying to build up the military and that is probably the most costly project that is going to drag Canada down into the red plus the war. If unemployment get too high he won't have the taxes coming in and if price of oil keeps going down than I would think Alberta will be in trouble and they had created 250,000 jobs. So if oil and the manufacturing sector starts to head downward, the Tories can sell all the Feds assets and it still probably won't help.

[Jerry J. Fortin]

There is no silver bullet. The economic silver bullet is the financial holy grail. The monetary system is beginning to collapse, and the seers who lead us to this point are dropping like flys.

It needs to be said that political foresight needs to provide a social policy decision that is compliant to the desires of the public. This does not bode well for capitalism.

[White Doors]

I think a good plan would be to go into deficit, but for the right reasons. Cut non-essential programs, but go into a 1-2 year deficit with a massive inflow of infrastructure spending. Make it a National Priority. I dentify upgrades needed and get going on it. The time to increase spending on Infrastructure is in down-times, not during high times when the government would have to compete with private industry for skilled workers.

The Regions should identify target areas and the work should get started.

In tough times there are opportunities and I think this one may be a winner.

Edited November 17, 2008 by White Doors

[Argus]

I think a good plan would be to go into deficit, but for the right reasons. Cut non-essential programs, but go into a 1-2 year deficit with a massive inflow of infrastructure spending.

Has unemployment rocketed uprwards recently without my being told? We don't need expensive projects to put people to work.

In tough times there are opportunities and I think this one may be a winner.

What tough times are you talking about, exactly?

[noahbody]

I don't know why Harper just doesn't ask Dion to help him trim $12 Billion from government spending. It might be the one part of the Green Shift he can salvage.

[White Doors]

Has unemployment rocketed uprwards recently without my being told? We don't need expensive projects to put people to work.

What tough times are you talking about, exactly?

I am not foretelling of a disaster or anything, but I think there is a large correction happening.

I think Infrastructure investment can help Canada compete over the longer term.

That said, I'd still rather not go into deficit at all. I'm just saying that if we do, let's have something to show for it.