Well, today is the Liberal/NDP Non-Coalition Coalition Budget Day!

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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I’m hoping Jagmeet Singh is eying the official opposition position from afar…

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is set to table the federal government’s fall economic statement on Monday, revealing the state of the country’s finances…for LAST year…not THIS year.
In her 2023 budget, Freeland promised last year’s deficit would be no bigger than $40.1 billion, which is staggering enough. Back in October, though, parliamentary budget officer (PBO) Yves Giroux put the 2023-24 deficit at $46.4 billion – 16% higher than Freeland’s pledge.
Freebird on Monday isn’t announcing 2024’s hit or miss deficit budget, but 2023’s results…seriously…on the second from last day that Parliament sits in 2024.
The PBO believes the Liberals have spent more money than they had at this time last year. Freeland pledged the 2024-25 deficit would be “only” $39.8 billion, but already several leading Canadian banks are projecting closer to $50 billion.
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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Regina, Saskatchewan
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The federal government’s fall economic statement will be tabled on Dec. 16, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Monday. Then Parliament breaks for the winter holiday the very next day.
“I look forward to presenting the next steps in our economic plan to deliver a good middle-class life for everyone,” Freeland said in a press release that announced the government’s fall economic statement would be revealed on Dec. 16. The fiscal update will take place just two days before the House breaks for Christmas.

The statement, to be tabled in Parliament on Dec. 16, will reveal whether Freeland is keeping her promise to hold the federal deficit for 2023-24 to $40.1 billion or less. The parliamentary budget officer already has said she's unlikely to hit that mark.😳

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has not committed to meeting the $40.1-billion deficit target she set for the government last year, as the Liberal government appears to unshackle itself from constraints on spending ahead of a federal election.

Freeland said Tuesday she expects the fall economic statement, which she will present on Dec. 16, will show a declining debt-to-GDP ratio.
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The press release does not detail the location or timing or the fall economic statement, only the date.
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The minority Liberals faced a deluge of questions from the Conservatives on Thursday over a Globe and Mail report that Mr. Trudeau is again in talks with Mr. Carney. Tensions between the Prime Minister’s Office and Ms. Freeland’s have risen recently over increased spending on political strategies that risk her own self-imposed spending goals.
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Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is back to the self-grope hand gestures so I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Freeland’s fiscal update will face close scrutiny Monday, with financial markets and political observers watching to see if she can stick to her promises while attempting to reverse the Liberals’ political decline.
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Freeland will table the fiscal update at 4 p.m. Monday, coming to the table late with a fall economic statement delivered less than a week before winter officially arrives, & one day before Parliament breaks for the holidays.
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On Tuesday, Freeland committed the government to one of three fiscal guardrails she set last year, when she promised that Canada’s debt-to-GDP ratio — the amount the country has borrowed compared to the size of the economy — will be lower than 42.4 per cent and will be on the decline.
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“I chose my words with care because it is important to be clear with Canadians. It is important to be clear with capital markets,” she said. “I do expect that when we table the fall economic statement on Monday, the debt-to-GDP ratio for 2023-24, which we put forward in the 2024 budget, will be met.”
But asked repeatedly about two other objectives the government set just last year, she said nothing.
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In the 2023 fiscal update, the government said the deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year, which ended this past March, would be less than $40.1 billion. Oh well…
1734290024070.jpegFreeland also said that deficits would fall below one per cent of the Canadian economy by 2026.
1734290871702.jpegIn addition to not offering a fiscal update, the government has not released the public accounts, which are the government's audited books for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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Will she fall off the tightrope or get thrown under the bus first?
Can we make bets? My max is a $0.05 Canadian Peso coin, & I’d like to go with falling off the tightrope and landing in front of the moving bus, ‘cuz it’s 2015-ish…😉

Double or nothing, it’ll be called a communications issue.
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Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
26,177
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Regina, Saskatchewan
If you are one of the nearly 19-million working Canadians expecting to receive a $250 cheque from the Liberal government in the new year, don’t spend the money just yet.

Sources have told National Post that Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will reverse the government’s position on the “Working Canadians Rebate” that would have cost an estimated $4.68 billion.

Good! We don’t need more debt on top of the debt on top or the debt, etc….
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One person with knowledge of the plans said that the measure will not be in the fiscal update on Monday, but the government hopes to take another look in the new year, if it can find another party to support it.
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While the GST holiday received the backing of the NDP, Jagmeet Singh was clear that his party would withhold support for the rebate cheques unless seniors, people with disabilities and injured workers were included. The Bloc Québécois adopted a similar approach. An expanded rebate could have added another $2 billion to the cost.
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The removal of the commitment to spend nearly $5 billion on a measure the Finance Department did not believe made financial sense will be seen as a victory “of sorts” for Freeland.
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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Regina, Saskatchewan
The last time a finance minister disagreed with the prime minister on spending — Bill Morneau on COVID benefit levels — Trudeau resolved that Ottawa wasn’t big enough for both of them.
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Freeland appears to be under similar pressure, despite the affinity the prime minister is said to feel for her. Barely a day goes by without a new story about former central banker, Mark Carney, being lined up to replace her.
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The Globe and Mail has reported that the PMO is planning for two cabinet shuffle scenarios: one that includes Carney and one that does not. Emails to Carney seeking comment were not returned by deadline.

A cabinet shuffle is overdue: there are two vacancies and four other ministers have said they are not running in the next election.
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It remains possible that there is a shuffle this Tuesday that sees Carney revealed as the new finance minister, although one source suggested that timing is becoming less and less likely.

But this is no way to run a country.

We have reached a level of dysfunction at the very top that is even greater than at the time of the Morneau-Trudeau spat.
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It is government by improv, with all the inconsistency and “miscommunication” that entails when you are making it up as you go along. “There are a lot of moving parts,” said one official.

The finance minister has appeared strained and seemed to tear up when she was asked about the tensions over spending at a press conference on Friday.
 
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petros

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The last time a finance minister disagreed with the prime minister on spending — Bill Morneau on COVID benefit levels — Trudeau resolved that Ottawa wasn’t big enough for both of them.
View attachment 26198
Freeland appears to be under similar pressure, despite the affinity the prime minister is said to feel for her. Barely a day goes by without a new story about former central banker, Mark Carney, being lined up to replace her.
View attachment 26204
The Globe and Mail has reported that the PMO is planning for two cabinet shuffle scenarios: one that includes Carney and one that does not. Emails to Carney seeking comment were not returned by deadline.

A cabinet shuffle is overdue: there are two vacancies and four other ministers have said they are not running in the next election.
View attachment 26200
It remains possible that there is a shuffle this Tuesday that sees Carney revealed as the new finance minister, although one source suggested that timing is becoming less and less likely.

But this is no way to run a country.

We have reached a level of dysfunction at the very top that is even greater than at the time of the Morneau-Trudeau spat.
View attachment 26202
It is government by improv, with all the inconsistency and “miscommunication” that entails when you are making it up as you go along. “There are a lot of moving parts,” said one official.

The finance minister has appeared strained and seemed to tear up when she was asked about the tensions over spending at a press conference on Friday.
 
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Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
26,177
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Regina, Saskatchewan
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Luckily for Freeland, Mark Carney isn’t an MP, & nobody but Trudeau has voted for him….but…
Below are four Liberals on a panel talking in circles about this.
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Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
26,177
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Regina, Saskatchewan
There will be a shuffle. Housing minister Sean Fraser just quit as per an alert on my phone.
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Monday is mini-smoke&mirrors budget update at the end of the day.

Tuesday is the last day of sitting in Parliament in 2024….so…

Wednesday, when nobody in Parliament to comment on it, is another Trudeau cabinet shuffle ‘cuz it’s 2015?
 
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Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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Regina, Saskatchewan
(Carney is the chair of Brookfield Asset Management, which is in talks with the government to launch a $50-billion investment fund with support from Ottawa and Canadian pensions…just say’n…)
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IdRatherBeSkiing

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May 28, 2007
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(Carney is the chair of Brookfield Asset Management, which is in talks with the government to launch a $50-billion investment fund with support from Ottawa and Canadian pensions…just say’n…)
Do I have this right: they are negotiating with taxpayer money with a man who they are trying to lure into their cabinet? There is no conflict of interest here at all.
 
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Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
26,177
9,568
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Regina, Saskatchewan
Ms. Freeland said she resigned after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau informed her on Friday that he no longer wanted her to be his top economic minister…. Because it’s 2015?
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(Hands NOT in the self grope position)

“Upon reflection, I have concluded that the only honest and viable path is for me to resign from the Cabinet,” she said in a letter to Mr. Trudeau that she posted on X. “To be effective, a minister must speak on behalf of the Prime Minister and with his full confidence. In making your decision, you made clear that I no longer credibly enjoy that confidence and….

Ms. Freeland said the Prime Minister offered her another cabinet post but did not say what it was.