government spending

10:00AM
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Alberta’s economy is still on shaky ground as oil prices remain depressed relative to last year’s levels.


9:00AM
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The Ontario government has never made a secret of its desire to have the federal government help fund Ontario’s provincial budget. It even started its own think-tank with $5 million in 2009, which regularly publishes reports that call on the federal government to rescue Ontario’s provincial finances.


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The new Alberta government has delayed introducing a budget until the fall, so MLAs will have plenty of time to think about how they’ll collect and spend Albertans’ money.


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Provincial cries for more federal money are as old as Confederation, and rarely have any substance to them.


8:00AM
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In a famous explanation of why voters choose the governments they do, a 1990s-era adviser to Bill Clinton remarked, “It’s the economy, stupid.” That’s not wholly accurate; voters toss parties out (and vote parties in) on matters other than unemployment rates and incomes. The recent Alberta election is only the most obvious example.


9:00AM
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Once the euphoria of the Alberta NDP’s historic election victory subsides, Premier-elect Notley and her leadership team will have to make a fundamental decision about the fiscal-policy path the new government will pursue. This decision will shape the immediate and future prosperity of Albertans.


6:00AM
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In a recent column in the Edmonton Journal, a local historian mused that modern governments have become too enamoured with “the unfettered market of purely economic conservatism.” He then equated higher taxes and more government spending with compassion.


7:00AM
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As expected, the 2015 federal budget had the general feel of an election budget, with a small surplus and a smattering of initiatives to satisfy various voting groups.


10:00AM
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Imagine you’re near what you thought was a dormant volcano but it suddenly erupts. Assuming you escape, you might later reflect that there was nothing “sudden” about it.


6:00AM
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Ontario’s 2015 budget, like those of years past, needed a concrete plan to get government finances on a sound footing. Yet again, the budget failed to deliver.