This article was first published in January of this year, to much eye rolling and disbelief.
Here we are eight months later and nothing has changed except the government cannot hide the inconvenient facts any longer. Note the dates of the following articles.
The report projects a deficit of $3.9 billion in 2009-10 and $1.4 billion in 2010-11, with a return to modest surpluses of $1.6 billion in 2011-12 and $3 billion in 2012-13. CBC Thursday, November 20, 2008
The federal government will run a $34-billion deficit in the coming fiscal year, and a $30-billion deficit in the following year, a senior government official said. CBC Thursday, January 22, 2009
"We will run a substantial short-term deficit this year which I would estimate at more than $50 billion," Flaherty said. CBC Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Flaherty also said the deficit this year will be more than $5 billion higher than originally thought, moving up to a projected $55.9 billion from $50.2 billion. CBC Friday, September 11, 2009
Stay tuned for more deficit increase announcements!
Where is the Outrage over The Biggest Theft of Taxpayers Money in Canadian History?
During the run up to the October election in Canada, Prime Minister Harper stated that the Canadian 
Banking system was different than the American banking system and was in fact sound! There were no plans for a deficit! Yet, just 4 days before the election, the government announced a commitment to purchase an intitial $25 billion dollars worth of "secure" mortgages from the Charter Banks through CMHC!
Not quite a month later, on November 12, 2008 another $50 billion was announced! The government has tried to claim the purchase would not cost Canadians money.
So how did we get to a $64 BILLION dollar deficit then?This minority government gets away with saying one thing to the Canadian public and then doing exactly the opposite, even before the election had taken place they had plans to Bailout the Banks. Did they know the media would not really cover the issue? Did they know the Opposition parties would remain silent? What is going on here?
Did the Prime Minister and his Minister of Finance lie to the public? The evidence seems to answer YES!
As reported in the Globe & Mail days before the election.
Mr. Harper said that “nothing on the horizon – notwithstanding the storm clouds and they are significant – indicates to me that we should immediately go into deficit.”Conservative staff rejected the suggestion he was leaving open the door for a deficit further down the road, though, noting Mr. Harper also said “we're certainly not going to embark on deficits.”
The Conservative Leader reminded Canadians of three differences between this country and the U.S. today. He noted that the federal government is running balanced budgets, that Canada's banking system is not in crisis like its counterpart in the United States and that the housing lending sector is also relatively unscathed.
“I think we do need to remind them of some of the differences with the U.S. We are not in deficit. We don't have a mortgage crisis or banking crisis as they do in the United States. We've actually been so far this year creating jobs,” he said.
From the same article the message from Jim Flaherty the Minister of Finance also stated, “Canada's financial system has handled the persistent global market turmoil very well. Canada's banks and other financial institutions are sound and well-capitalized, and are less leveraged than their international peers,” Mr. Flaherty said.
“Canada's mortgage system is sound. The Canadian housing finance market does not have a large sub-prime component and has not witnessed the proliferation of products and marketing practices that have led to the serious problems being experienced in the United States. Canadian households have smaller mortgages relative to both the value of their homes and to their disposable incomes than U.S. households,” he said. ( by STEVEN CHASE Globe and Mail Update with Canadian Press October 6, 2008 at 8:21 PM EST)
Just a month ago the Finance Minister had projected a $2.3 billion dollar surplus. (Edmonton Sun, December 24, 2008)
This same man knew there was to be no surplus even before the October election! How can you give away $25 Billion dollars four days before the election and still claim the country would still have a surplus? That is just an outright fabrication!
Mr. Harper stated during the debate just 11 days before the election "We have not been following the same economic policies as in the United States that have led to that mess ... We've made very different choices in Canada and we have a surplus."
Seven days later and again four days before the election the Harper government announced Act I of The Great Canadian Bailout... $ 25 billion dollars worth.
Act II, another $50 BILLION, barely a month after the election!
These men are either very, very incompetent or very good at lying.
What makes all of this so much worse, is the fact that Canada's future is at stake with these bailouts.
Canadian taxpayers are bailing out banks that have recorded huge profits over the last couple of year alone!
The Big Six in Canada and the Profits for 2007 and 2008 from CBC.ca
| Year | TD Bank | Bank of Montreal | Royal Bank | CIBC | National Bank | Scotiabank |
Combined |
| 2008 | 3.83 Billion | 1.98 Billion | 4.56 Billion | -2.01 Billion | 776 million | 3.14 billion | |
| 2007 | 3.99 Billion | 2.13 Billion | 5.49 Billion | 3.30 Billion | 541 Million | 4.05 billion | |
| Total | 7.82 Billion | 4.11 Billion | 10.05 Billion | 1.29 Billion | 1.32 Billion | 7.19 Billion | $31.78 Billion |
| Bailout | $75 Billion |
More inconvenient facts: excerpt from "Canada's 75 Billion Dollar Bank Bailout" by Michel Chossudovsky, Global Reasearch
No Parliamentary Debate
The $700 billion US bank bailout under the Troubled Assets Relief Program, was the object of debate and legislation in the US Congress.
In contrast, in Canada, the granting of 75 billion dollars to Canada's chartered banks was implemented at the height of an election campaign, without duly informing the Canadian public.
Canada's media and financial press bears a responsibility in this regard. The matter was barely mentioned. It passed virtually unnoticed a few days before a federal election.
Media coverage was minimal. There was no parliamentary debate. No discussion, no debate as one would have expected from the opposition parties at the height of an election campaign as well as in its aftermath.
Nobody seemed to have noticed. Most Canadians do not know that there was a 75 billion dollar bailout of Canada's financial institutions.
The decision was casually presented as an effort "to ease the credit crunch" and encourage Canadian banks "to loosen their purse strings and extend more lending to businesses and consumers."
The impact, however, is likely to result in exactly the opposite: the centralization and concentration of financial wealth to the detriment of the real economy..
Mergers and Acquisitions
We are not dealing with a Keynesian style deficit, which stimulates investment and consumer demand, leading to an expansion of production and employment.
While, the bank bailout is a component of government expenditure, it does not constitute a positive spending injection into the real economy.
Quite the opposite. The bailout is a handout to the banks. It contributes to financing the restructuring of the banking system leading to a massive concentration of wealth and centralization of banking power.
The bailout money will be used by Canada's chartered banks to consolidate their position as well as finance the acquisition of several "troubled" financial institutions in the US. (See text box below)
The Destabilization of the Federal Fiscal Structure
This is the most serious public debt crisis in Canadian history.
The bank bailout potentially destabilizes the federal fiscal structure. It leads to a spiraling budget deficit, which must be financed at tax payers expense. The entire structure of public spending is affected including federal-provincial transfers. The (federal) public debt is slated to increase by 14 % over a two year period. The provincial debts are also likely to increase dramatically.
The 75 billion dollar bailout is to be partially financed by increasing the public debt.
The Minister of Finance has intimated that further measures are envisaged "to bolster the availability of credit" with the government "injecting capital into banks if necessary." (Bloomberg, January 23, 2009) It is worth noting that in addition to the $75 billion, the government has pledged "to backstop more than $200 billion in interbank lending so banks can boost their lending capacity." (Toronto Star, December 13, 2009). The implications of this decision remain to be carefully analysed.
What we can expect is a combination of budgetary compressions coupled with an increase of the public debt. Most categories of federal expenditure (excluding defense) are likely to be affected.
The federal fiscal structure is in jeopardy. The budget deficit finances the bank bailout.
What is likely to occur are more government "handouts" to banks and corporations coupled with a massive austerity program and a spiraling public debt.
The size of the public debt is also affected by the economic crisis. Company layoffs and bankruptcies seriously affect the revenues of the State. Unemployed people and bankrupt companies do not pay taxes. The increase in unemployment and the contraction in salaried earnings will backlash on tax revenues, which in turn contributes to exacerbating the fiscal crisis both at the federal and provincial levels.
| Canadian Banks': Selected Acquisitions (2008) In 2008, TD Canada Trust acquired Commerce Bancorp of New Jersey in the second largest Canadian M&A deal valued at $8US.6 billion.(Market Wire, Jan 12, 2009). Royal Bank's (RBC) New York subsidiary RBC Centura acquired Alabama National Bancorp. for a modest $1.6 billion. "The Federal Reserve Board approved the acquisition on Feb. 5, 2008. (Florida Today, February 12, 2008) In October 2008, Royal Bank announced that "it has completed the acquisition of ABN AMRO 's Canadian commercial leasing division, which provides equipment financing to Canadian corporations. (October 2, Canada Newswire). |
Just a few "inconvenient facts" Canadians need to remember as this same Minority Government releases its budget today, after the Parliment has been prorogued for nearly 2 months.
Will any other party make a difference? I don't know as the silence from them has been deafening.
One thing we do know, the Harper Government has lied to Canadians!
