Community Newspapers and Magazines, New Media Fund and Television Fund
All of these appear to have potential merit.
Sport is too big for me to analyze as it refers to $650 million for the 2010 Olympics and I don't know enough about the spins offs there.
Tourism I have written on some already, and think their direction is off the mark, especially investing in Historic sites, Campgrounds, and Cruise ship facilities. That's not going to alter the fortunes of the tourism operators significantly. Better to work with Domestic and International Airlines to offer deals on flights to Canada and with hospitality operators on package deals. Some really good ad campaigns too.
Utilizing existing tourism infrastructure to attract domestic and international interest would be more effective use of this money. Promoting currency advantage is another reasonable option. Looking into the traditional spiking of fuel prices during summer months is something else that would have a significant impact. If oil prices stay reasonably close to present levels, government efforts could keep this from becoming a deterrent like last summer. Getting on big oil now to push them toward responsive production levels and pricing will encourage activity rather than discourage it. A small temporary reduction in fuel taxes could be an incentive too.
Improving Canada's competition and Investment frameworks section isn't written in specific terms.
Environment and Green Energy Technology.
The focus there is clearly on carbon capture and is expanded to coal. Supposedly there is $1 Billion in new money for alternative energy but that is stretched over 5 years. The government claims this will result in $2.5 Billion total investment over that time frame.
The intent seems reasonable, the time frame too long and the amount short in my view.
On Nuclear, $351 million for the Candu reactors and Chalk River would seem a positive item.
Supporting Small Business
Raising the base amount eligible for reduced federal tax rate is ok, not earth moving though. As it represents total tax reductions of $45 million for 09/10, and $80 million for 10/11, it is very little. There appears to be an additional $240 million, some for assisting young persons create new businesses. The bulk of the remaining money is to go for information and advice plus create approx. 1000 positions for students entering this workforce.
Looks like opportunity for a lot of well paid advisors and consulting firms. I can see the pink of their snouts.
Helping all Regions to prosper will be next. In the meantime, here's the link that goes with this again.
http://www.budget.gc.ca/2009/plan/bpc3e-eng.asp
This page from CBC has a great deal of budget related items as well if you haven't seen it yet. There is a section on the right with analyses.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/01/27/budget2009-infrastructure.html
Comrade, I had a look at the headers for analyses from the cbc link. Only one international topic on the auto industry.
ReplyDeleteThere was no mention that the current strategy of global deficit spending was agreed on when governments were still seeing growth predictions by some world organizations. The numbers agreed to were before the full realization of how deep this situation is and has become. As I started to say to Garth before he winked out, the $32B is only a very small parachute.
My analysis of the budget related current situation.
We are now at the point where reality kicks hope in the ass.
A while back I wrote the stimulus portion of the budget was to prop up the sagging economics for the interim while waiting for things to correct on their own. Many of the areas in the budget that I can analyze show a lack of understanding of what would be effective, and appear to afford ample opportunity for good friends.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of the funds so far have gone to prop up the banks it would seem. CMHC is supposed to play a role too, but they don't do so well on the ground. I had a bit of experience with them recently and if this was in keeping with their usual business tactics, we can be sure that losses from defaults will be a great deal more than if a private organization handled it. Besides which, the Financials are dropping again as I had mentioned two or three weeks ago. It was delayed a bit, probably on account of hoping the US lottery would treat them favorably. Obama said last week, jobs over Wall St.
They are just going to have to cut the fat and live with it. Even the great Trump put his Casino's in Ch 11 today. Before Christmas he was buying other people's unfinished projects and "Trumpeting" opportunities.
If the funds here were accelerated in some areas and better targeted in others it would have more immediate impact. The longer it takes the quicker the ripple effect from Ontario will spread, and by fall it's going to be grim.
I read Charest announced increases in user fees for things like hydro and thought there will more of that soon. He promised not to raise the publicly subsidized day care amount though. It will remain at $7 a day. But that's another issue.
The tories did say they left the door open for further spending.
California is ready to give 10K their pink slips.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget17-2009feb17,0,1851008.story
The autos want more money (there's a surprise) and plan up to 50K in layoffs.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aNGID28SuzCo&refer=home
B.C. is heading for 495M in the red according to the headlines at Gripes and Moans.
Flaherty's budget sucked. As for the further spending? Only in ridings that they have seats or are hoping to gain seats. Where their 'friends' are.
Harper doesn't want to tell Canadians how bad it's going to get and that's why he's been avoiding the cameras. Obama is only touching on how bad it's going to get.