Gee sure would be nice if that DST went thru for some extra revenue without cuts… 🤦♂️
Canada total spending is $450B
But $120B of that is discretionary excluding transfer payments.
So we’re looking at a whole of government reduction of $18B for 15%. Transport Canada spends $25B on roads.
Stop subsidizing inefficient personal vehicles by making people absorb the real costs of them and we can make that cut in seconds.
I agree, but unfortunately that’s basically never going to happen. At least not in our lifetimes.
One of Canada’s greatest flaws is that we followed the US into car-dependent, suburban-sprawl at the catastrophic expense of everything else. We have spent decade upon decade investing unfathomable amounts of money into building the most dysfunctional cities imaginable and ensuring there is no practical way of getting in or out of them except a car.
We built car dependancy starting in 60, though about 80 in ernest.
We fucked our cities over 40-60 years, and we’re seeing the turning point happen in real time right now. Most cities have the policies in place now, or coming in the next 5 years.
On the roads side there’s a 45 year lag for recapitalization. On the construction side, harder to tell.
It won’t happen in my lifetime, but it will happen in my kid’s.
Stay the course and we can do it.
I’m going to sound like a moron asking this, but if the country makes over 2 trillion per year, and we are only spending 4 some-odd billion per year, shouldn’t we be able to get out of debt while staying afloat over time?
Because we tax ~0.44T on our 2.2T GDP. Or about 20%.
Ah ok so if I’m understanding this, the 2.2T we make is all of our collective earnings, which we then get taxed on, which in turn pays for our services and those who help keep things going (i.e. police, firefighters, gov workers) and such ALONG WITH paying down the debt and building up the infrastructure where it’s needed?
Exactly. Consider it like family X making $220,000 combined income, but paying $44,000 in federal taxes. The remaining $176 is the family’s money to spent (at least before the provincial tax slice).
Edit: and to be clear, $440B is federal taxes. Some of the things you mentioned are paid for by provincial or municipal taxes.
Cutting off your leg is tough but doable.
I have a really hard time believing these cuts aren’t going to hurt services. They’re saying they aren’t going to lay off public servants, which suggests to me that it’ll be the actual service delivery that’ll take the hit.
They’re absolutely saying it will hurt services.
What’s this guy’s deal, man. I thought he was supposed to be an economist?
What’s this guy’s deal, man. I thought he was supposed to be an economist?
Do Economists never cut spending?
Dont worry, he wont be cutting the Bank of Canada’s funding, nor the billions in mortgage bonds the Bank of Canada is buying to inflate home values for his stock portfolio. It will be the less important things like health transfers and child benefits.
Saving the economy will need more spending, even if some efficiencies in government is fine. Don’t hear about anything about economic boosting other than dead ender energy pipelines.
Doable is a real word now?
Language evolves constantly. If people use a word and can understand its meaning and context then it’s a perfectly cromulent option.
I don’t disagree. I’ve been saying it since like… 2005. Seeing the CBC use it feels weird though. 🤷♂️
@Mongostein @slykethephoxenix earliest recorded use is from the 15th century, but it’s likely from the 12th.
Now that’s interesting
As an allophone: it isn’t?
I don’t even know what an allophone is
