BUDGET 2012

[Oscar]

CONSERVATIVE BUDGET SLASHES HEALTH CARE, PENSIONS

http://www.ndp.ca/press/
conservative-budget-slashes-health-care-pensions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MARCH 29, 2012

Stephen Harper promised to create jobs, instead he slashes vital services Canadians rely on

OTTAWA — NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair today slammed Stephen Harper’s Conservatives for introducing a budget that recklessly cuts the vital services that Canadians rely on—such as Old Age Security and health care.

“Stephen Harper promised jobs and growth, but delivered reckless cuts. There’s nothing on jobs, nothing on inequality and nothing to strengthen our front-line health services. ” Mulcair said. “Mr. Harper is once again looking out for his friends, while he ignores growing inequality.”

The budget outlines the Conservative plan to raise the OAS eligibility age from 65 to 67, forcing seniors to work two years longer to make ends meet. It also unilaterally changes the funding formula for federal health transfers, short-changing provinces by a whopping $31 billion, opening the door to privatization and two-tier health care.

“The Conservatives ran an entire election campaign without saying a word to Canadians about their plans to cut OAS or health transfers,” Mulcair said. “Clearly Mr. Harper is not a man of his word.”

As recently as last June, Mr. Harper solemnly stated in the House of Commons “We will not cut pensions. We will not cut transfers to the provinces for major programs such as health care.”

Mulcair said New Democrats would oppose the Conservative budget unless it was amended to focus on the priorities of Canadians. New Democrats are calling on the Conservatives to increase targeted incentives to create good jobs, protect retirement security and provide the stable funding necessary to allow provinces to hire more doctors and nurses.

“This budget attacks the very institutions that make Canada what it is,” Mulcair said. “Conservatives want to balance the books on the backs of seniors who can’t retire with dignity, and families without a family doctor. New Democrats will hold them accountable for that.” -30-



RELATED: (LINKS are on original URL above):

Conservative budget slashes health care, pensions

The Conservative budget: no relief for Quebecers

Turmel urges Harper to not leave families out in the cold

[Oscar]

Green Party leader Elizabeth May criticizes 2012 federal budget

http://www.straight.com/article-648816/vancouver/
green-party-leader-elizabeth-may-criticizes-2012-federal-budget

By Stephen Thomson, March 29, 2012

The federal government has introduced a “tough-on-nature” budget, Green Party leader Elizabeth May says.

In a phone interview with the Straight today (March 29), May criticized plans to reform the government’s approach to environmental reviews for major projects like oil pipelines.

“[Prime Minister] Stephen Harper is hell-bent on getting oil supertankers on the B.C. coastline, and building pipelines to the Gulf of Mexico, and pipelines to Kitimat, and he doesn’t want anything to slow it down,” May said.

“This is a tough-on-nature budget.”

In a 2012 budget background document, the government outlines plans to make changes around the regulatory processes for the resource sector and speed up reviews. The government plans to introduce legislation establishing a “one project, one review” framework, and to “streamline the review process” on big projects.

“Recently it has become clear that we must develop new export markets for Canada’s energy and natural resources, to reduce our dependence on markets in the United States,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in the budget speech today.

“The booming economies of the Asia-Pacific region are a huge and increasing source of demand, but Canada is not the only country to which they can turn. If we fail to act now, this historic window of opportunity will close,” he said.

“We will implement responsible resource development and smart regulation for major economic projects, respecting provincial jurisdiction and maintaining the highest standards of environmental protection, Flaherty said.

“We will streamline the review process for such projects, according to the following principle: one project, one review, completed in a clearly defined time period. We will ensure that Canada has the infrastructure we need to move our exports to new markets.”

May predicted the reforms will see the federal government, in some cases, handing off responsibility for environmental reviews to provinces.

“I think we’ll see the end of federal reviews such as Fish Lake. It simply wouldn’t have happened. The province of British Columbia would have said, ‘Look, we’re doing a review. Feds, back off.’ It would have been approved to destroy Fish Lake instead of having [former federal environment minister] Jim Prentice say that that project had to be reconsidered and that Prosperity mine couldn’t go ahead.”

[Oscar]

Budget targets environmental critics

http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/
Budget+targets+environmental+critics/6380851/story.html

BY MIKE DE SOUZA, POSTMEDIA NEWS MARCH 29, 2012 5:51 PM

OTTAWA — Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's budget takes aim at the federal government's environmental critics, while reducing its own internal resources for promoting sustainable development.

The budget tabled Thursday proposes a few environmental protection measures. In contrast, it contains an $8-million plan to crack down on conservation groups, while maintaining the status quo on substantial tax incentives for the oil and gas sector.

The budget also proposes to eliminate a key federal advisory panel on business and environmental issues — and its $5.2 million annual budget — which is headed by Flaherty's former chief of staff, David McLaughlin.

The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, originally established in the 1990s to advise the prime minister, regularly produced reports that challenged the business and environmental policies of the government, particularly regarding climate change.

The proposed crackdown on charities would add new resources to the Canada Revenue Agency to monitor and restrict environmental groups from sending out emails to supporters and other activities that are considered to be political in nature.

"Recently, concerns have been raised that some charities may not be respecting the rules regarding political activities," said the budget.

"There have also been calls for greater public transparency related to the political activities of charities, including the extent to which they may be funded by foreign sources." [ . . . ]

[Oscar]

Budget: Environmental reviews to be limited, simplified

http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/
Budget+Environmental+reviews+limited+simplified/6380812/story.html

BY JASON FEKETE, POSTMEDIA NEWS MARCH 29, 2012 7:04 PM

OTTAWA — The federal government is overhauling its environmental review process for natural resource projects, announcing in Thursday's budget it will implement defined timelines, hand over some reviews to the provinces and dedicate fewer resources to examining small projects.

In a move sure to rankle some environmental groups, the Harper government said it will soon introduce legislation aimed at having "one project, one review" in a defined time period.

"We will implement responsible resource development and smart regulation for major economic projects, respecting provincial jurisdiction and maintaining the highest standards of environmental protection," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in his budget speech to the House of Commons.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver have recently criticized "foreign money" and "radical" environmental groups, which they claim are attempting to hijack regulatory hearings and ultimately derail major resource projects, such as the Northern Gateway pipeline project currently under review. The pipeline would ship oilsands crude from northern Alberta to the port of Kitimat, B.C., for shipment by tankers to Asia.

The government is looking to eliminate duplication on environmental reviews, provide more certainty to companies investing billions of dollars in major petroleum and mining projects across the country, and help expand Canada's energy export markets beyond the United States.

The Harper government will limit joint panel environmental reviews to 24 months (such as the Northern Gateway project), National Energy Board hearings to 18 months and standard environmental assessments to one year.

The federal government will now also recognize some provincial environmental assessments for resource projects as equivalent to federal assessments, and will also transfer some decision-making for permits from Ottawa to other jurisdictions.

Green party leader Elizabeth May noted the government has already weakened the environmental review process in recent years and is now planning to cut the budget of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency by more than 40 per cent in the new budget year.

Streamlining the regulatory process for major resource projects "is the last few nails in the coffin of environmental review," May said.

"It's all about railroading projects through as fast as possible without having them adequately reviewed for environmental impacts," she said. [ . . . . ]

[Oscar]

Flaherty smiles toward natural resources as environmentalists feel pinch

http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/
Budget+Flaherty+smiles+toward+natural+resources+environmentalists/6381029/story.html

BY PETER O'NEIL, POSTMEDIA NEWS MARCH 29, 2012 5:34 PM

OTTAWA — The Harper government's budget Thursday tossed roses to Western Canada's natural resource-based economy and lobbed a political grenade at the environmental movement.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced a long-promised blueprint to streamline the environmental review process, and also proposed changes to Employment Insurance, the immigration system, and aboriginal education designed to increase the labour supply to booming sectors, such as B.C.'s burgeoning natural gas industry and Alberta's potent oilsands sector.

A starkly different message was sent to environmental groups that are raging an intense battle against the oilsands sector and especially Calgary-based Enbridge's proposal to build a pipeline to Kitimat, B.C.

The budget commits $8 million over the next two years to help the Canadian Revenue Agency target registered charities that the government believes are too overtly political.

The money will be used to "improve transparency by requiring charities to provide more information on their political activities, including the extent to which these are funded by foreign sources," according to budget documents.

One federal official said $3 million of the $8 million will go to "education and compliance," with the "lion's share" of that $3 million to cover the cost of stepped-up audits.

Flaherty's speech described Canada's natural resources as a "massive" asset, with the oil and gas, mining and forestry sectors employing roughly 750,000 Canadians and driving economic growth across the country.

In a nod to efforts by Enbridge and Kinder Morgan to obtain approval from the independent National Energy Board to build oilsands pipelines to the West Coast, Flaherty said: "it has become clear" Canada must open new Asia-Pacific markets.

And he said the government "will ensure that Canada has the infrastructure we need to move our exports to new markets."

Flaherty warned that Canada could lose a "historic opportunity" if it falls to its competitors trying to feed China and other resource-hungry Asia-Pacific economies.

"We will implement responsible resource development and smart regulation for major economic projects, respecting provincial jurisdiction and maintaining the highest standards of environmental protection," Flaherty told the House of Commons. [ . . . ]

[Oscar]

CATCH FOR THE DAY - The Tyee - March 30, 2012

Minister Moore's Sucker Punch to the CBC
After promising the broadcaster's budget was safe, the harsh truth came clear yesterday. By David Beers
http://goto.thetyee.ca/
t?ctl=16AA82E:6D244622054605D0DE5F0FC1BA8BDE3C8F7D795DAFB9E650&
Friday, March 30, 2012


Flaherty Budget Will Hike Health, Crime Costs for BC: Falcon NDP's Ralston blasts BC Libs' 'political love affair with Tories.'
By Andrew MacLeod

http://goto.thetyee.ca/
t?ctl=16AA82F:6D244622054605D0DE5F0FC1BA8BDE3C8F7D795DAFB9E650&
Friday, March 30, 2012

[Oscar]

A budget that screws the planet for short-term profits

http://www.behindthenumbers.ca/2012/03/29/
a-budget-that-screws-the-planet-for-short-term-profits/

March 29th, 2012 Marc Lee CCPA - Environment, Federal Budget

First off, the 2012 federal budget makes no upfront claim to be a budget. Indeed, the cover states only "Economic Action Plan 2012: Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity." While we have been accustomed in recent years to budgets with their own titles, this one does not actually say "Budget" anywhere. This makes it more a framework economic document that includes gutting of environmental assessment in the name of the economy.

This is a colonial vision of the economy as a quarry for foreign interests. Instead of ensuring development of resources in a manner consistent with real long-term needs like energy security, the country is to open to any foreign investor who wants our resources, and Canadians will politely have to clean up the mess afterwards. While there will be some Canadian jobs in all of this, most of them will be of short duration in the construction phase, but the budget also increases the capacity to bring in temporary foreign workers.

This is known in the budget as "responsible resource development." This perverse label includes putting hundreds of millions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere - pretty much the opposite of being responsible.

Our penchant for planetary destruction just cannot happen fast enough. Under the mantra "one project, one review" environmental considerations will get lumped in with everything else, meaning that review processes for destructive mining and oil and gas projects will be fast-tracked. On p. 96, the six projects highlighted as "major economic projects" that will benefit from consolidated review - three oil and gas pipelines, a gold mine and a uranium mine - are indicative of the government´s priorities. The Major Projects Office currently has 70 projects on file, and the budget forsees 500
projects over the coming decade.

The document is full of euphoric exaggeration - the assertion, for instance, that "oils sands ... generate wealth that benefits all Canadians." The document then sternly adds that "Canadians will only reap the benefits that come from our natural resources if investments are made by the private sector to bring the resources to market" (emphasis added). Yet, the logic gets tied up in knots, as the pushing of the success story of resource development contrasts with claims that companies are facing "an increasingly complicated web of rules and bureaucratic reviews that have grown over time, adding costs and delays that can deter investors and undermine the economic viability of major projects."

As for "jobs, growth and long-term prosperity," unfortunately, there are few jobs in the resource sector areas under consideration (mostly mining and oil and gas projects) and other measures to facilitate the import of temporary foreign workers. As for "long-term", this measure is focused on very short-term liquidation of Canadian resources for hefty profits but that imperil people in other countries and in the future.

One interesting note is a commitment to "rationalizing inefficient fossil fuel subsidies by phasing out tax preferences for resource industries." It turns out this was a 2009 G-20 commitment, and Canada´s "implementation" is misleading at best. The first part of it came last year when Budget 2011 phased out preferences for oil sands producers relative to conventional oil (just as conventional oil is dwindling). In Budget 2012, an investment tax credit for oil and gas development specific to Atlantic Canada is being phased out (apparently worth $0 in budget terms) as is a mineral exploration and development tax credit (worth a measly $10 million per year and well offset by other tax cuts and deregulation lavished on the industry). These are token gestures compared to the grand commitment on "rationalizing fossil fuel subsidies."

In terms of dollars, protecting the environment is also taking a hit as part of overall spending cuts (see other posts by David MacDonald, Armine Yalnizyan, Andrew Jackson and Toby Sanger). Environment Canada will get cut by $20 million in 2012/13 rising to $88 million in 2014/15 (an 8% cut). Parks Canada gets a $6 million cut this year, rising to $29 million in 2014/15.

The National Roundtable on the Economy and the Environment (NRTEE) has been scrapped, ostensibly because of an "expanded community of environmental stakeholders has demonstrated the capacity to provide analysis and policy advice to the Government." Unless they get funds from foreign radicals, apparently. The NRTEE was one of the few federal voices that have acknowledged the challenge of climate change in a series of reports, while calling for action to reduce emissions, studying measures of doing so (such as carbon pricing) and making estimates of anticipated climate-related damages to the Canadian economy in future years. Their contributions clearly were not welcome in "don´t ask, don´t tell" Ottawa, and will be missed.

Small note: there is a $2 million provision for accelerated capital cost treatment of clean energy generation, targeted at biomass.

The term "climate" appears four times in the budget. Twice there is a passing reference to climate change, but really an afterthought. The other two times are in reference to investment climate.

[Oscar]

SHIELDS: How Long Will Harper Remain Our Prime Minister?

----- Original Message -----
From: Stewart Shields
To: Prime ministre ; Rae.B@parl.gc.ca ; Peter - M.P. Julian
Cc: Alberta Activism ; Canada's Canada ; flaherty ; goodale ; Liberal Canada
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2012 1:26 PM

Subject: How Long Will Harper Remain Our Prime Minister?

I wouldn’t agree with the idea the budget has anything to do with Harper's view for Canada. The budget more points to Harper’s great fear of anything that looks like WORK!! Keeping the government uninvolved was a KLEIN Alberta stunt, along with privatizing anything that involved government attention to avoid a normal workload for a leader and his government. I can agree with Harper Tories that Canada may be financially better off than Greece, however, I would temper that joy with a reminder of how far behind Finland, Norway and other involved Nordic countries we have fallen!! Those that voted for Harper with expectations of the good fiscal management he suggested he possessed must be very disappointed, when cutting spending rather than growing the Canadian economy is his answer for Tories to continue to hold power.

I’m hopeful little opposition time will be spent on this kindergarten budget at the expense of Robo-calls, and the crimes associated with election suppression Canadians experienced in the last election. I strongly would encourage a public enquiry into matters surrounding this monstrous undercover event, that should be transparent to the public in an effort to restore some respect to the election system in Canada. Our Prime Minister should follow the righteous path taken by former Prime Minister Martin when he was faced with the Sponsorship Scandal. Surely we need better than 200 individual riding reviews to determine Harper’s suitability to continue as Canada’s Prime Minister. Lord Black found a useful purpose for his time spent behind bars for his misdeeds!!

Stewart Shields

Lacombe, Alberta

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From Harper's Tories, a budget that dials back the role of government

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/budget/
from-harpers-tories-a-budget-that-dials-back-the-role-of-government/article2386627/

bill curry AND jeremy torobin OTTAWA— From Friday's Globe and Mail

Published Thursday, Mar. 29, 2012 10:14PM EDT Last updated Friday, Mar. 30, 2012 9:18AM EDT

With his first majority budget, Stephen Harper has laid bare his vision for the future Canada: Government will be smaller and less intrusive, individuals will take more responsibility for their own retirement and business will return to driving the economy.

The 2012 budget is a showcase for Mr. Harper’s hands-off political approach, one that combines sweeping spending cuts to the public service with a handful of targeted policy changes geared to drive future investment.

Ottawa plans to chop 19,200 public-service jobs, cut federal program spending by $5.2-billion a year and, in perhaps its most controversial move, extend the retirement age of millions of Canadians to 67.

The budget was billed as an effort to make hard choices now so that federal programs and benefits are sustainable over the long term, but the level of cuts was more cautious than many had expected – neither calming union fears nor satisfying fiscal hawks.

There were some economic measures that were clearly in keeping with Mr. Harper’s economic vision. On natural resources, the government is clearing away regulatory hurdles to drive Canada’s energy sector and stepping up its battle with oil industry opponents.

But there also are some surprising departures. For the first time, Mr. Harper’s defence-minded government is cutting back on military spending. And while attempting to expand economic ties overseas through trade, the government is slashing budgets for diplomacy and aid.

“We are fiscal conservatives, we are a majority now, the economy is growing – albeit modestly. … We’re looking to the future,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told the House of Commons. “We have a rare opportunity to position our country for sustainable, long-term growth.” [ . . . ]


RELATED:

Tory budget slashes $5.2-billion in spending, gives boomers a pass on OAS

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/
tory-budget-slashes-52-billion-in-spending-gives-boomers-a-pass-on-oas/article2386044/

Ottawa’s budget gives cross-border shoppers a break

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/budget/
ottawas-budget-gives-cross-border-shoppers-a-break/article2386468/


Federal budget 2012
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/budget/

[Oscar]

Elections Canada receives ‘phone fraud’ complaints from 200 ridings; takes budget cut of $7.5 million

http://canadians.org/blog/?p=14378
By Brent Patterson
The Globe and Mail reports, “Canada’s chief electoral officer is rejecting any attempts to play down the extent of the voter-suppression tactics in the last election, expressing his outrage for the first time in public about fraudulent robo-calls made in the name of his impartial organization.”


2012 Federal Budget: ‘Where is water in the budget?’

http://canadians.org/blog/?p=14402
By Emma Lui
The 2012 federal budget, Economic Action Plan 2012: Our plan for jobs, growth and long-term prosperity (EAP 2012), was released late yesterday afternoon.


Budget 2012: Good for Big Oil, Bad for People and the Environment

http://canadians.org/blog/?p=14397
By Andrea Harden-Donahue
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s budget speech, interrupted by chants of ‘where are we in your budget?’ delivered a fierce blow to environmental protection in Canada and undoubtedly put smiles on the faces of Big Oil executives.



Federal Budget 2012: Good for mining, bad for water

http://canadians.org/blog/?p=14384
By Meera Karunananthan
The 2012 Federal Budget is a gift to the mining industry and a curse on the environment. With massive growth expected in the mining and energy sector, proposed amendments to environmental regulation will allow companies to skip steps and fast-track approval and permitting processes.

[Oscar]

All but unscathed by federal cuts: MPs and their pensions

http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Federal ... 012/03/30/
MP-Pensions/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=310312

By Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press March 30, 2012 11:55 am

OTTAWA -- So much for sharing the pain.

Retirement just got harder for ordinary Canadians and for public servants, but the gold-plated pension plan enjoyed by members of Parliament has emerged virtually unscathed -- at least for now -- from Thursday's federal budget.

The budget promises only to begin moving "over time" toward making parliamentarians pay 50 per cent of their pension contributions and vaguely refers to further "adjustments" which won't take effect until after the next election in 2015.

"So far, the government's been pretty hard on ordinary Canadians and there's no evidence that they're willing to lead by example at all," said Gregory Thomas, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

For most Canadians under the age of 54, Thomas noted: "You've just had two years added on to your working life, you've just had your old age security benefits postponed by two years," yet "they don't say a word about the MP pension plan."

"We've been led to believe that this government is capable of providing leadership and making tough decisions but, if it is, there's no proof of that in this budget at all."

The federation has long crusaded against the parliamentary pension plan, under which MPs who've served a minimum of six years are entitled to start collecting what critics contend is one of the most generous pensions on the planet at age 55.

MPs enjoy pension benefits worth up to 75 per cent of their salary -- and indexed to inflation -- while ordinary Canadians are restricted by law to tax-sheltered pensions worth less than one-fifth of their annual pre-retirement income.

The federation estimates that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be eligible to collect an annual pension of at least $223,500 by 2015. Pierre-Luc Dusseault, a rookie New Democrat MP elected last May at the tender age of 19, can retire from politics at 27 and still be eligible to collect an annual pension of $40,000 once he turns 55. [ . . . ]

[Oscar]

Oh Canada! IMPOSING AUSTERITY ON THE WORLDS MOST RESOURCE RICH COUNTRY

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=30074

Ellen Brown CONTRIBUTION · 4th April 2012

Even the world's most resource-rich country has now been caught in the debt trap. Its once-proud government programs are being subjected to radical budget cuts-cuts that could have been avoided if the government had not quit borrowing from its own central bank in the 1970s.

Last week in Ottawa, the Canadian House of Commons passed the federal government's latest round of budget cuts and austerity measures. Highlights included chopping 19,200 public sector jobs, cutting federal programs by $5.2 billion per year, and raising the retirement age for millions of Canadians from 65 to 67. The justification for the cuts was a massive federal debt that is now over C$ 581 billion, or 84% of GDP.

An online budget game furnished by the local newspaper the Globe and Mail gave readers a chance to try to balance the budget themselves. Possibilities included slashing transfer payments for elderly benefits, retirement programs, health benefits, and education; cutting funding for transportation, national defense, economic development and foreign aid; and raising taxes. An article on the same page said, "The government, in reality, doesn't have that many tools at its disposal to close a large budgetary deficit. It can either raise taxes or cut departmental program spending."

It seems that no gamer, lawmaker or otherwise, was offered the opportunity to toy with the number one line item in the budget: interest to creditors. A chart on the website of the Department of Finance Canada titled "Where Your Tax Dollar Goes" showed interest payments to be 15% of the budget-more than health care, social security, and other transfer payments combined. The page was dated 2006 and was last updated in 2008, but the percentages are presumably little different today.

Penny Wise, Pound Foolish . . . . .

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The Bankers' Silent Coup

Why are governments paying private financiers to generate credit they could be issuing themselves, interest-free? According to Professor Carroll Quigley, Bill Clinton's mentor at Georgetown University, it was all part of a concerted plan by a clique of international financiers. He wrote in Tragedy and Hope in 1964:

The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations.


Each central bank . . . sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world.

In December 2011, this charge was echoed in a lawsuit filed in Canadian federal court by two Canadians and a Canadian economic think tank. Constitutional lawyer Rocco Galati filed an action on behalf of William Krehm, Ann Emmett, and COMER (the Committee for Monetary and Economic Reform) to restore the use of the Bank of Canada to its original purpose, including making interest free loans to municipal, provincial and federal governments for "human capital" expenditures (education, health, and other social services) and for infrastructure. The plaintiffs state that since 1974, the Bank of Canada and Canada's monetary and financial policy have been dictated by private foreign banks and financial interests led by the BIS, the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), bypassing the sovereign rule of Canada through its Parliament.

Today this silent coup has been so well obscured that governments and gamers alike are convinced that the only alternatives for addressing the debt crisis are to raise taxes, slash services, or sell off public assets. We have forgotten that there is another option: cut the debt by borrowing from the government's own bank, which returns its profits to public coffers. Cutting out interest has been shown to reduce the average cost of public projects by about 40%.

Game over: we win.

- - - - -

Source OpEdNews.com

Ellen Brown is an attorney, president of the Public Banking Institute, and author of 11 books.

Her websites are
http://WebofDebt.com
http://EllenBrown.com and
http://PublicBankingInstitute.org.

In her latest book, "Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We Can Break Free," she shows how the power to create money has been usurped from the people and how we can get it back.

[Oscar]

BOB RAE, LEADER OF THE LIBERAL PARTY - Budget 2012 - "It's mean-spiirited and it's wrong."

http://www.terracedaily.ca/show9574a0x300y1z/
DEAR_EDITER_-_FROM_BOB_RAE_LEADER_OF_THE_LIBERAL_PARTY_

Bob Rae CONTRIBUTION · 3rd April 2012

Letter to the Editor - Dear Editor,

Are you prepared to give up $13,000 during your golden years? Prime Minister Stephen Harper thinks you are. That’s what the average Canadian will have to give up thanks to the federal budget introduced by the Conservative Party last week.

The Budget cuts retirement benefits by raising the age of eligibility for Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement from 65 to 67 years, forcing Canadians to postpone their retirement for 2 years. For low income seniors it’s even worse. They stand to lose up to $30,000 which could hike seniors’ poverty by up third.

It’s a massive hit to the least-well off. It’s mean-spirited and it’s wrong.

The Conservatives offered zero financial analysis to justify the cut because there is none. The OECD, the Parliamentary Budget Officer and other leading experts have all confirmed that Canada does not face a pension crisis.

The Conservatives are also using the Budget making deep ideological cuts. They are cutting $90 million dollars from Environment Canada, further gutting protection for the environment when we should be strengthening it. They are cutting $166 million from Aboriginal Affairs, reducing funding for the fastest growing and most impoverished group in the country.

How skewed are these priorities? Take a look at what the government is not cutting: polls, advertising, bigger jails and stealth fighters.

Canadians should be asking Stephen Harper how he can justify such a small-minded Canada.

Yours sincerely,

Bob Rae, Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada