June 30, 2010
Open letter to the Honourable Tony Clement, Ministry of Industry and Minister Responsible for Statistics Canada and Munir Sheikh, Chief Statistician, Statistics Canada
Dear Sirs,
Economy and economic indicators
Just when the world economy appeared to be settling down, Greece -- that cradle of civilization, the birthplace of democracy – exploded with financial and political angst.
The Greek/Eurozone debt crisis continues to send shock waves through the global financial system. It is the new fault line of the 2008 financial crisis – the new contagion that threatens many other nations around the world.
In his column today in The Guardian, Will Hutton is the latest pundit to suggest Canada’s example from the mid 1990s is the right way to tackle austerity.
Every recession ushers in a rising tide of poverty. As jobless and underemployed people struggle to make ends meet, the nouveau poor swell the ranks of the déjà poor.
The most recent statistical update on incomes in Canada was released last week, telling us that in 2008, as the nation headed into a brutal recession, there were just over 3 million Canadians living in poverty using the standard measure, Statistic Canada’s after-tax low-income cut-off (LICO).
In a study for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), economist David Green found the gap didn’t grow as much over the 1980s as it did in the 1990s – especially post-1995, following cuts to government transfers and taxes. Both rich and poor families struggled during the 1980s recession, and both pulled out at comparable rates – but in the 1990s, things changed dramatically. The richest of the rich soared out of the 1990s recession but the poorest of the poor fell behind post-1995; they fared considerably worse.”
Once upon a time there was a global economic crisis.
It was followed by a World War.
Once upon a time we realized that, if we could make that kind of a mess together, we might be able to get together to do something better, too.
Who doesn’t want a better life? Less risk. More opportunity. The promise of economic mobility. That’s what my parents’ generation fought for, in a thousand different ways; and the sum of these parts forged a new direction.
Paul Martin was Canada's Minister of Finance from 1993 to 2003, and then served a short term as Prime Minister. He spoke on Canada’s debt reduction strategy in the 1990s to a recent Public Services Summit organized by the Guardian newspaper in the UK, and Canadian newspapers report that he is being tapped by the Europeans for advice on fiscal matters.
With the release of its National Food Policy on April 26, the federal Liberal Party is hoping to make agriculture a key election issue. Courting the rural vote with the “Rural Canada Matters” policy document, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff announced, after a tour of a Holland Marsh farm in Ontario, “Our farmers produce the healthiest, safest, highest-quality foods in the world – and we’ll help them get more of their products on our tables with Canada’s first comprehensive National Food Policy.”
Imagine a Canada where we all have a roof over our heads, childcare for our children, access to education and a job that pays a decent wage. Imagine a Canada where we all can look forward to retiring without financial worry.
Stephen Harper loves bragging about Canada’s stellar record of financial regulation. So it is a tad awkward to admit the architecture of Canada’s securities regulation is strictly bush league.
Canada has a patchwork of provincial securities regulators, while other countries like the US have federal securities watchdogs (like the Securities Exchange Commission) to oversee securities activities.