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Octavius Hite
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Location: Househunting, looking for a new bunker from which to convert the world to homosexuality.
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 Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 8:40 pm Post subject: Canada's Next Budget Surplus May Be as Much as C$12.4 Billio |
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Go Canada, setting the example for the rest of the G8 (and most of the rest of the world)!:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000082&sid=aouOGfjJTlNc&refer=canada
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Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Canada's surplus is forecast to be as much as C$12.4 billion ($10.5 billion) this year, triple the government's prediction, giving Prime Minister Paul Martin more room to cut taxes and boost spending ahead of elections.
The surplus will be C$5.6 billion to C$12.4 billion for the year ending in March, according to estimates from four forecasters commissioned by parliament's finance committee. The government has budgeted a surplus of C$4 billion, which would leave as much as C$8.4 billion of the surplus unaccounted for.
Opposition parties have accused Martin of underestimating tax revenue so he can add extra spending before the fiscal year ends to win voters. That will continue as the nation approaches elections early next year, Conservative Party lawmaker Monte Solberg said in an interview.
``We are heading into an election, so needless to say the government will try and do its tried and true strategy of opening up the spending floodgates and try to buy a lot of votes,'' said Solberg, who is responsible for financial affairs for the country's biggest opposition party. Martin has said he will call an election early next year.
The Liberals have underestimated budget balances by an average of about C$6 billion annually in the past 10 years, according to a report commissioned by the finance ministry this year.
To silence criticism over forecasting, the government introduced a law this month allowing any money in excess of the government's predictions to be spent on tax cuts, additional spending and debt payments. The previous law had stipulated that budget windfalls go toward paring the nation's debt.
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 9:15 pm Post subject: |
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I love this part:
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| Opposition parties have accused Martin of underestimating tax revenue so he can add extra spending before the fiscal year ends to win voters. |
Tough being the opposition when the budget's always so good. Kind of like Alberta. Remember when the surplus there was supposed to be 1.9 billion and it turned out to be 9.1 instead?
Hey! You didn't say we'd have this much money! Why?! |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 9:32 pm Post subject: |
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Good news in a way but then it's also evidence the government should really lower taxes. It's great, however, governments have learned to be very pessimistic about budgets. Assume very pessimistic growth targets. A bloodly simple idea but amazing it took them so long. Me, I always over estimate in my budget my various utility bills. That way there are no surprises and there's some extra cash in the budget at the end of the month.
I remember back in 1991 the Ontario NDP government was budgeting around these pie in the sky growth figures "Oh we'll have 6% growth in 1992...". Just misery. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 10:03 pm Post subject: |
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| sounds like the clinton years in good ol' america. |
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the_beaver
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 10:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Of course, the debt is still around 600 billion so these small potato yearly surpluses will need to be around for awhile. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 10:16 pm Post subject: |
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| bucheon bum wrote: |
| sounds like the clinton years in good ol' america. |
I miss him.
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 10:17 pm Post subject: |
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Most of that surplus has gotta be from Alberta's OIL revenues. They aparently possess the world's 2nd largest oil reserves. Creeps me out everytime i hear "Pappa" Cheney is coming up to get all cozy with Ralph the "Red-Nosed" Premier.
Was a story Yahoo rtan last week delaing with the squabble betwen Ottawa & Alta over oil revenues, transfer payments etc. Martin saying he had the right to do this, Klein saying the opposite.
Resource diversity is what i preach. Reduce our dependency on 20th century / dinsosaur technology & embrace alt. energies. |
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Octavius Hite
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Location: Househunting, looking for a new bunker from which to convert the world to homosexuality.
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| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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Its really something to be proud of because it is clear that this economic prudence is firing up the economy and Alberta is on fire as well. And remember every time we put money on the debt our interest payments fall and thus we have more money (hundreds of millions dollars) to spoend on social programs.
As for taxcuts I would love to start seeing them but not at the risk of going back into deficeit. Were I PM I would do two things:
1. Everytime we drop the debt by 100 Billion I would cut the GST by 1 or 2%.
2. I would legalize Marijuana and tax the hell out of it. It is estimated that pot is the largest industry in BC, bigger than fishing, or the port, or logging. That is billions of tax dollars that are being given away to organized crime (not to mention the hundreds of miillions that we spend trying to stop it.). |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2005 5:10 am Post subject: |
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| igotthisguitar wrote: |
| Most of that surplus has gotta be from Alberta's OIL revenues. They aparently possess the world's 2nd largest oil reserves. Creeps me out everytime i hear "Pappa" Cheney is coming up to get all cozy with Ralph the "Red-Nosed" Premier. |
Alberta technically does have oil reserves equal to Saudi Arabia but that's mostly locked up in oil sands. Oil has to be about $50 a barrel to make it profitable to extract. Oil is a provincial cash cow (save for off shore oil) so most of that surplus isn't from Alberta's oil revenues. It's simply from setting pessimistic growth rates (ie income tax revenues).
| Octavius Hite wrote: |
I would legalize Marijuana and tax the hell out of it. |
Yes and no. The government tried to do that with normal cigarettes. At some point it touched off a smuggling operation and crime wave like never before seen. People used to rob convenience stores, not waste any time taking the $50 cash, but just filling garbage bags full of smokes. Given pot is way easier to grow than tobacco and there's already an established home grow op all over Canada, you would have a hard time taxing it in any kind of oppressive manner. |
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Octavius Hite
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Location: Househunting, looking for a new bunker from which to convert the world to homosexuality.
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| Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2005 6:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Yes, Marijuana would be much tougher to tax so the way around it would be to heavily tax grow equipment, literature, and electricity on people who grow it. |
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