New Canadian Budget: "We're Screwed."
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.27.08
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty
Canada's economy is still relatively strong and generating surpluses, creating opportunities to invest in a green future. So what does Stephen Harper's government offer in its new budget? Toronto Star environmental commentator Tyler Hamilton has a dispassionate and unemotional view: "I think I'm going to throw up. We're screwed." He also notes: "I want to bang my head against my computer monitor, I really do, but it would be difficult to write this post with blood splatters on my screen."
All Canadians concerned about the environment would share this view of a budget that cancels incentives for buying efficient vehicles, but finds money for Atomic Energy of Canada to finish the design of a reactor that nobody wants, for a clean coal plant in Saskatchewan, and a quarter of a billion to the car companies for research research into more fuel-efficient cars, as if there has not been enough research already.
Hamilton concludes:
This is where the Harper government is most hypocritical. It doesn't want to provide too much help to new, emerging clean-energy technologies and companies because it believes these technologies and companies should be able to compete on their own in the marketplace. At the same time, it gives hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to the same old group of energy guys who, in most cases, aren't the ones that truly need the helping hand.Leadership. Vision. A sense of urgency. Not here. Not from the Canadian government.
Hamilton is being a teensy bit overdramatic. The budget, while not offering a whole lot on the green front, is at least fiscally conservative, offers yet another small surplus, pays down the debt, and gives us a modest new tax free shelter we haven't had before (tax free accounts up tp $5K/yr).
II'm no Conservative supporter, believe me, but I say that when it comes to being green, continue to vote with your wallets, and take matters into your own hands by taking action on a personal level. Eventually governments will start to listen if we all do it.
Those are some s***- eating grins, if ever I saw them.
about about the tax break for oil companies ?
just tax heavily any vehicule bruning more than 6L/100km and I'll be fine with it. ... and I almost forgot : this tax should not be deductible or credited for companies.
From the states:
I disagree with Anonymous. He's basically saying that government has no role in promoting greenenss. If the public wants the government to promote green stuff, the government does it. That's how democracy works. Allowing the economy to lead the way on this guarantees that only the economic problems, not the environmental, will eventually be resolved, and only by the rules of market logic.
In the US, and Canada, the government takes ordes from the people. Period. .
Put more money into researching fuel-efficient cars, but take away incentives that promote their purchase? You sure these guys aren't secretly American? That reeks of American logic. XD
im not a conservative supporter either, overall the budget is ok though still lacking vision and real movement on the environment. But still, in my opinion, change starts with government mandates. We can vote with our dollars all we want, i just think "voting with your wallet" is the extremely long road and is the least that can be done to change things. Real change has to come from a strong leader at the top.
Stephen Harper eats babies. Election please.
What is it with Governments trying to be run like companies? A government has (and needs) to invest during bad times, has to have foresight (e.g. Infrastructure) etc, and yet the Canadian Government seems to be more concerned with paying down debt (by and far not a bad thing) instead of planning for the future.
I really wish someone in Ottawa would wake up (or any of the provinces really) and realize that Canada is not a Company and that the priorities have to be different than mainly the mantra of a "budget surplus".