Government Dogma of "Responsible Fiscal Plan"
Finance Minister
Chrystia Freeland says her economic update is a "responsible fiscal
plan focused on affordability and housing." It is a cynical statement
indeed given that her economic update does not directly increase any
investments in social programs. On housing she is providing loans to
private developers to construct around 30,000 housing units starting in
2025. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) says 5.8 million
more homes need to be built by 2030 to reach its estimate of
affordability and make a dent in the housing crisis while current
projections fall far short at
around 3 million units.
Speaking prior to the release of the update Freeland told reporters: "We have to be sure that we make the investments Canadians need, provide them with the support they need, but do it within a fiscally responsible framework. We won't be able to do everything."
"Won't be able to do everything" is putting it mildly. The government is captured within the imperialist dogma of "fiscal responsibility and finding the right balance." Billions in government revenue can be found for buying U.S. F-35s, servicing government debt and handouts to global enterprises such as Stellantis. Pay-the-rich handouts have become de rigueur for any major private investment such as the billions for battery plants in Ontario, Quebec and BC. These are never questioned as being fiscally and socially irresponsible and serving the private interests of the global rich. Only when dealing with the economic and social problems Canadian working people face does the issue of fiscal responsibility and finding a balance arise.
The priorities and aim of governments at all levels are to serve the rich and not the working people. The rich and their peers are in control of the cartel party governments across the country. They have concocted dogma to excuse why they cannot stop paying the rich and increase investments in social programs.
Meanwhile some in
the monopoly-controlled mass media are forced to admit that social
conditions for the people are deteriorating. The Toronto Sun writes:
"Millions of Canadians are caught in the middle of an affordability
crisis which even the Trudeau government admits is serious, people are
losing their homes because of high mortgage interest rates, or paying
exorbitant rents because of a national housing shortage, while
inflation is eating into household budgets for necessities such as food
and shelter. Food bank use, at almost two million visits in March of
this year was at its
highest level since records started being kept in 1989, according to
Food Banks Canada."
Preliminary data from Statistics Canada suggests the economy shrank in the third quarter of this year, the second consecutive contraction. Homeless counts across Canada have doubled from last year and food insecurity has skyrocketed. This is the hard reality Canadians are facing and no dogma can wish it disappear. Canadians need increased investments in social programs and a new direction for the economy away from serving the rich and their global enterprises into serving the people and their public enterprises so working people can build a self-reliant economy outside and beyond the clutches of the global parasites and their wars, exploitation, thieving interest payments and recurring economic crises.
Of course, Freeland would have none of it and sweeps aside the problems and possibility of a new direction and pro-social aim for the economy. Mouthing imperialist dogma she says, "It's a hard balance ... on one hand, supporting Canadians as we need to do and at the same time being fiscally responsible. But it's a balance that we're committed to striking. We won't be able to do everything."
In other words, the status quo of paying the rich and global parasites continues and the government's economic update assures that direction. The ruling elite demand a continuation of the status quo suggesting only that the Liberal brand is tired and looking stale and in need of a replacement. Bring on the Conservatives, they cry, for the same old same old imperialist dogma but with a new face. It underscores the need for political democratic renewal to keep these thieving cartel parties out of positions of power and privilege.
Parliamentary Spectacle to Announce Not Much Can Be Done
When the ruling Liberal cartel party and its NDP partner addressed the fall economic update, they put on a pitiful parliamentary spectacle in a failed attempt to put a brave face on a show where they had already declared nothing will be done to solve the country's mounting economic and social problems. The economic update announced nothing much more than some money for loans to construction companies starting in 2025 while millions of new housing units are needed immediately.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh nervously admitted the update accomplished nothing regarding the "affordability" crisis facing the people, including any movement on his signature pharmacare policy objective but he still pledged to continue his cartel party's support for the Liberal government to keep it in power until the fall of 2025.
Canadians are stuck within an anti-democratic political system which denies them the tools to mobilize the people to move the country forward in a new pro-social direction.
Stop Paying the Rich!
Increase Investment in Social Programs!
Empower
the People!
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 11 - November 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/M530112.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca