McGuinty to Harper: Tag You're It!

Wouldn't wanna be a retired auto worker today!

Premier Dalton McGuinty's admission yesterday that "Ontario's pension plan safety net isn't large enough to cover auto workers if GM goes bankrupt" signals a new round of TAG YOU'RE IT in Canadian politics.

And in this case, PM Stephen Harper is the 'it'.

Effectively, McGuinty gave notice to the federal Tory's yesterday that Ontario "is moving to limit the amount of money it would have to pay in a pension bailout." Ergo, come what will for Canada's auto sector (hell, high-water, or bankruptcy) the ball is now in Ottawa's court. In case there was ever any doubt, McGuinty made it clear that it is Harper's government that is going to have take ownership of the mammoth catastrophe that may await the ten of thousands of auto retirees who depend on their pensions to survive.

Of course, Ontario "is partly responsible for the pension crisis at GM Canada because of 1992 legislation that enabled the company to underfund its own plans." It was a change that all but guaranteed that if GM were ever to fail, her long serving employees and generations of pensioners were bound to find themselves where every worker man and working woman finds themselves at the end of the day amidst an economic collapse - Shit-out-of-Luck. While McGuinty did admit Ontario had "a political and moral responsibility to pensioners"; he also confessed that, really, the province has no capacity to meet the needs of those "experiencing troubles with their pension plans". According to the Report on Business, the problem is that Ontario's Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund, mismanaged for decades, is running a deficit. Though to be fair, even had the fund been administered properly, it was never designed to meet the demands created by a wholesale collapse of the auto sector. Simply put, if GM goes bankrupt, there is no way Ontario will be able to step into the breech to fix a "total pension shortfall may exceed $6-billion".

"Tag" Harper - you're it!

No worries though, Harper's federal Industry Minister Tony Clement is doing his best to help prepare pensioners for their possible fate by "offering words of warning" that they "need to be prepared for possible bankruptcy filings in the auto sector." But tell us Tony, how do 70 and 80 year old auto retirees "prepare" themselves for the disappearance of their pensions? What do you recommend? Do they take to the pavement in search of work with their walkers, wheelchairs and oxygen tanks?

As one retiree shouted at Finance Minister Jim Flaherty yesterday in Oshawa: "Your government asked me to take a haircut as a retiree, ... I took the haircut, but, dammit, I'm not going to let you scalp me on my pension, too." Frustrated by the retirees questions, Dim-Jim Flaherty responded to their concerns with this observation nugget; "Listen, this is a very serious time! ... All of these issues being raised about jobs, about pensions, ... these are very major questions that are being discussed right now in a serious way."

"Serious"? No kidding. Again Harper - "Tag you're it!"

$3 Billion? Who Will Oversee Flaherty?

January's orgy - the Budget -
was full of so many spending
items that it boggled my little-pecker mind.

Who, I wondered, was going to oversee all the spending? Surely Finance Minister Friggin' Flaherty was going to need some Help!

"Okay," I said to self, "No worries, we have an Auditor General and a Parliamentary Budget Officer. What could possibly go wrong?"

THEN I remembered reading this mid-January National Post story:

OTTAWA -- Canada's budget officer Kevin Page says... [he is being 'systematically undermined' in] his work .... Mr. Page pulled no punches in a written plea to party leaders, urging MPs and senators to bring "clarity" to the confusion over his mandate ... [Mr. Page] argues ... interference in the management of his office is preventing him from doing the oversight he believes he was hired to do - at a time of economic upheaval when every dollar counts.... Mr. Page says it's up to parliamentarians to decide what they expect from the post.

"In order for me to fulfill the legislated mandate I require restoration of the PBO budget ... and ongoing and greater clarity from parliamentarians on the independence and operating model of the PBO function."

.... the embattled budget officer says he needs more independence to manage his office. The office deals with potentially politically explosive issues, such as studies into the sale of assets, the auto bailout, and the risks of ongoing deficits, so it needs protection from reprisals if it publishes reports that don't sit well with the government.... Some speculate the hiring delays and budget cut will effectively squeeze Mr. Page out of a job and that it wouldn't be happening without the government's blessing... "

AND now Friggin' Flaherty wants to have carte blanche authority over a new $3 Billion discretionary chequing account??? How do we know it won't be used to fund a Tory re-election campaign? Who is accountable?

To simple Jim's request for a slush fund I say NO! No matter how pressing the recession (you denied existed) gets - no matter how you frame your argument - no matter how you rationalize it - - I say, emphatically ... No Thanks!

Who Will Oversee Flaherty?

January's orgy - the Budget - was full of so many spending announcement's that it boggled my little-pecker mind. Who, I wondered, was going to oversee all the spending? Surely Finance Minister Friggin' Flaherty was going to need some help?

"Okay," I said to self, "No worries, we have an Auditor General and a Parliamentary Budget Officer. What could possibly go wrong?"

THEN I remembered this mid-January National Post story:

OTTAWA -- Canada's budget officer Kevin Page says... [he is being 'systematically undermined' in] his work .... Mr. Page pulled no punches in a written plea to party leaders, urging MPs and senators to bring "clarity" to the confusion over his mandate ... [Mr. Page] argues ... interference in the management of his office is preventing him from doing the oversight he believes he was hired to do - at a time of economic upheaval when every dollar counts.... Mr. Page says it's up to parliamentarians to decide what they expect from the post.

"In order for me to fulfill the legislated mandate I require restoration of the PBO budget ... and ongoing and greater clarity from parliamentarians on the independence and operating model of the PBO function."

.... the embattled budget officer says he needs more independence to manage his office. The office deals with potentially politically explosive issues, such as studies into the sale of assets, the auto bailout, and the risks of ongoing deficits, so it needs protection from reprisals if it publishes reports that don't sit well with the government.... Some speculate the hiring delays and budget cut will effectively squeeze Mr. Page out of a job and that it wouldn't be happening without the government's blessing... "

AND now Friggin' Flaherty wants to have carte blanche authority over a new $3 Billion discretionary chequing account???

No Thanks!

From that bastard elf Flaherty: Coal for our stockings!

Coal in our stockings! Dirty, ugly and symbolic - Jim Flaherty has given us a dose of coal to suckle this season.

Now Flaherty could have waited until after Christmas to give us the new fiscal up-yours update, but NO! This month's figures were released at 3pm EST the day before Xmas eve! November's Fiscal Monitor statement was released on the 27th. True October's was on the 24th; but September's was on the 26th. What a difference a day makes! Talk about wanting to bury a story!

As MSNBC's Rachel Maddow observed in a different context last night, the tried and true "dumping" of bad news by government's on Friday's is well-founded. Hoping their news will get 'lost' in the end of week news-cycle; all government's 'dump' news on Friday's. But to do it a day before Christmas? Jesus, that's like boot-fucking Santa to death after he merrily slides down your chimney during his annual B&E.

Travesty!

Well Flaherty and Harper knew exactly what they were doing this time. They figured they would drop the coal in our stockings and they hoped we wouldn't notice. Thankfully, some have:

CBC - The federal government posted a $603-million deficit in October as tax revenues fell, according to figures released by the Finance Department on Tuesday.

Globe & Mail Report on Business, on our federal government's rapidly deteriorating fiscal position. [- - ->] The federal government is already starting to bleed red ink, ending the year with a report that showed three consecutive monthly deficits. And it is facing the increasing likelihood that it will post an annual deficit this fiscal year, even before a stimulus package that could be as large as $20-billion a year.

Bloomberg- The world’s eighth-largest economy is sputtering

Timely news indeed! Merry-e'ffn-Xmas!

Turns out October was the THIRD MONTH IN A ROW that whiz-bang economist Stephen Harper's government had posted a deficit! Does anyone remember their speechifying during the election? Does anyone remember Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee's "no deficit" mantra? Does anyone remember that in October some economic forecasters were predicting Canada was facing a 10 billion dollar deficit in 2009-2010 because OUR Conservative masters were failing "to stitch a 'looming fiscal hole'"?

Stephen Harper = Trained economist my frozen Winnipeg ass!

He and Jim are nothing but knowing liars. Anybody reading the Department of Finance "Fiscal Monitors" since last April could see where we were headed. Now a day removed from Christmas the truth is finally told: October's election had nothing to do with a "mandate" - it was all about hiding the truth. To make matters worse, the latest monthly financial statement suggests that the slide towards a deficit this fiscal year was due to a rapid run-up in government spending, not a fall in revenues. Again, trained economist my ass!

"Don't worry," Flaherty now says, the deficit will be only "temporary"! Well we certainly hope so, you walking, talking, breathing piece of Harper scat. But why believe him?

Flaherty the coal giver might as well channel Martin Luther King's immortal words and tell us:

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind."

Well, Flaherty, some of us do mind. So when you get yourself back to that mountaintop - do us all a favour: JUMP! We'll take it from here.