On September 15, I presented CCPA-BC’s recommendations for BC Budget 2011 at the Vancouver BC Budget Consultation public hearing. Take a look at my presentation slides for a brief overview of our take on BC’s current budget situation and economic outlook, and our advice for leading the province’s recovery.
Entries Tagged as 'deficit'
Our priorities for BC Budget 2011
September 17th, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Housing & homelessness, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes, Transparency & accountability
Tags: budget·budget consultation·debt·deficit·poverty·poverty reduction
BC’s 2009 Super-Fudge-It Budget
July 12th, 2010 · Marc Lee · 4 Comments · BC Election 2009, Provincial budget & finance
Under the “we told you so” category, I am filing the BC public accounts for 2009/10. The province closed the year with a deficit of $1.8 billion. As Will McMartin comments in The Tyee: … B.C.’s public accounts for the fiscal year 2009/2010 conclusively prove that the pre-election fiscal plan foisted on British Columbians by [...]
Tags: deficit
The recent secretive, haphazard spending cuts should be repealed
September 23rd, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Children & youth, Economy, Education, Provincial budget & finance, Transparency & accountability, Women
Almost daily we wake up to news of yet another important program or initiative whose funding has been cut by the BC government. Literacy initiatives, high school sports, programs that protect women and children from violence, arts and culture: hardly an area of social service provision has been spared. These cuts have been devastating to [...]
Tags: accountability·budget·children·deficit·role of government·service cuts·Women
What should our government be spending money on?
September 16th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Economy, Education, Environment, resources & sustainability, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes
One question that is missing from the public debate on deficits and debt is whether we’re getting the best bang for the stimulus buck. Even if we accept that it’s appropriate for governments to borrow and engage in deficit-financing during a recession, as I have argued here, we need to have a discussion about the [...]
Tags: budget·child poverty·childcare·children·debt·deficit·Olympics·public investment·recession·role of government
Putting our government debt in perspective (now with graphs)
September 15th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · 2 Comments · Economy, Provincial budget & finance
It turns out that our province is in a good fiscal position to engage in deficit-financing at this time. BC’s debt-to GDP ratio has been decreasing since 2002, which means that out government debt fell relative to our collective ability to pay. As a result, BC entered the recession as one of the Canadian provinces [...]
Tags: deficit
Should we be afraid of the government debt?
September 15th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · 1 Comment · Economy, Provincial budget & finance
Governments around the world are running large deficits in order to prop up their economies and dampen the hit of the global recession. For almost a year now, economists abandoned their usual anti-deficit arguments and seemed to agree that increasing government spending to stimulate the economy is the best way forward. We were all Keynesians [...]
Tags: deficit
Take Two: BC Budget 2009 September Update (Notes from Marc and Iglika)
September 1st, 2009 · Marc Lee · 1 Comment · Economy, Health care, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes
The September BC Budget is a new look at a budget most have come to see as a fake. February’s budget was not passed through the legislature due to the May election, and up to E-Day the government maintained the fiction that it had a small-ish deficit of just under half a billion dollars. Since [...]
Tags: budget·deficit·spending cuts
Still reckless and unnecessary
August 27th, 2009 · Shannon Daub · 5 Comments · Economy, Provincial budget & finance
Gary Mason offers this summary of the past eight years in yesterday’s Globe: When B.C. Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell came to office in 2001 he unleashed a top-to-bottom review of all government agencies in an effort to bring finances in order. The result wasn’t pretty. It led to protests of all kinds from any number [...]
Spending cuts will spell further job losses and a longer recession
August 27th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · 1 Comment · Economy, Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Provincial budget & finance
Want a recipe to harm the economy and increase hardship for British Columbians in the middle of a recession? It’s easy – all you have to do is cut government spending. Unfortunately, this is exactly where our government seems to be headed judging by their ominous throne speech. A new report by yours truly, released [...]
The throne speech missed the point
August 25th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · 4 Comments · Economy, Provincial budget & finance
Today’s throne speech suggests that the BC government has finally recognized the severity of the recession and the hardship it’s causing to families across the province. Unfortunately, when it comes to policy implications or what to do about the recession, the government seems to have it all backwards. Instead of presenting an ambitious stimulus plan [...]
