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

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
30,302
11,175
113
Regina, Saskatchewan
The Carney government tried to inoculate itself against charges of austerity on Wednesday as François-Philippe Champagne promised “sustained funding” for gender equality programs. Phew! But what the finance minister’s right hand giveth, his left hand is set to taketh away in next week’s budget.

As the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives identified in a new research paper, the “sacrifices” Carney referred in his recent speech at the University of Ottawa will likely be made by stealth. Rather than announcing major cuts, the left-wing think tank warned that 32 of 84 departments could meet their government-ordered 15 per cent budget cuts by simply not renewing programs that are due to “sunset.” Another 20 departments could reduce their spending by five per cent by sunsetting.

If those programs are not renewed, all staff positions and contracts simply end.
The most exposed department is Women and Gender Equality, which has very few permanent programs. Hence, the reason why the minister, Rechie Valdez, looked so relieved when she announced more than $600 million in long-term funding for her department on Wednesday.

But the departments of Crown-Indigenous Relations, Environment, Transport and Immigration, and the Public Health Agency, may not be so lucky.

Spending on Indigenous issues, which has quadrupled in the last decade, may be particularly vulnerable.

“Canadians should brace themselves for for one of the most draconian federal budgets in history,” wrote the think-tank report’s authors David Macdonald and Erin Mcintosh.

The bone Champagne threw to the Liberal party’s progressive wing on Wednesday was likely considered a necessary evil. The minority government can’t afford any of its squeamish MPs going wobbly when the budget comes to a vote.
The prospect of the government losing a confidence vote is not out of the question, though it was noticeable that the NDP’s interim leader, Don Davies, did not say his seven MPs would vote against the financial plan, even as he said they would not support an austerity budget. Leaderless, penniless and mired in the polls, discretion would appear to be the better part of valour. A few discrete New Democrat abstentions would be enough to see the budget pass through the House of Commons.
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
118,963
14,621
113
Low Earth Orbit
The Carney government tried to inoculate itself against charges of austerity on Wednesday as François-Philippe Champagne promised “sustained funding” for gender equality programs. Phew! But what the finance minister’s right hand giveth, his left hand is set to taketh away in next week’s budget.

As the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives identified in a new research paper, the “sacrifices” Carney referred in his recent speech at the University of Ottawa will likely be made by stealth. Rather than announcing major cuts, the left-wing think tank warned that 32 of 84 departments could meet their government-ordered 15 per cent budget cuts by simply not renewing programs that are due to “sunset.” Another 20 departments could reduce their spending by five per cent by sunsetting.

If those programs are not renewed, all staff positions and contracts simply end.
The most exposed department is Women and Gender Equality, which has very few permanent programs. Hence, the reason why the minister, Rechie Valdez, looked so relieved when she announced more than $600 million in long-term funding for her department on Wednesday.

But the departments of Crown-Indigenous Relations, Environment, Transport and Immigration, and the Public Health Agency, may not be so lucky.

Spending on Indigenous issues, which has quadrupled in the last decade, may be particularly vulnerable.

“Canadians should brace themselves for for one of the most draconian federal budgets in history,” wrote the think-tank report’s authors David Macdonald and Erin Mcintosh.

The bone Champagne threw to the Liberal party’s progressive wing on Wednesday was likely considered a necessary evil. The minority government can’t afford any of its squeamish MPs going wobbly when the budget comes to a vote.
The prospect of the government losing a confidence vote is not out of the question, though it was noticeable that the NDP’s interim leader, Don Davies, did not say his seven MPs would vote against the financial plan, even as he said they would not support an austerity budget. Leaderless, penniless and mired in the polls, discretion would appear to be the better part of valour. A few discrete New Democrat abstentions would be enough to see the budget pass through the House of Commons.
We'll be voting this winter.
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
30,302
11,175
113
Regina, Saskatchewan
A few discrete New Democrat abstentions would be enough to see the budget pass through the House of Commons.
With days to go before Prime Minister Mark Carney tables his first federal budget, opportunities to secure alliances to help it pass are dwindling in a parliamentary scenario where a handful of (NDP?) votes stand between the survival of the Liberal minority government and its total collapse.

While no clear pathway to passage has yet emerged, it may be the NDP’s drastically diminished seven-member caucus that decides Carney’s fate.
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(YouTube & Are we heading for another federal election?)
 

bob the dog

Council Member
Aug 14, 2020
1,905
1,303
113
If the Conservatives were going to win an election with this group it would have been the last one. Now is the time for putting in those pensionable days and to wait for Carney to hit turbulent waters. Of course an election gives them an excuse not to do anything.

Still think we need a "Western" focused group to represent those people or perhaps a Rural Canadian party that might have more coast to coast support. The door is open for the Green Party to step up imo.