It's Just An Economy

Yep:

According to the Fraser report, Prime Ministers and Government Spending, Updated 2020 edition, estimated federal spending this year at $13,226 per Canadian, adjusted for inflation, will be 50.7% higher than in the last global recession in 2009, and 74.5% higher than at the peak of the Second World War.

Jason Clemens, executive vice-president of the Fraser Institute, said it’s also a 42% hike over the previous record high of $9,306 per person Trudeau intended to spend this year, prior to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, and 46% higher than the then-record $9,041 per person his government spent in 2019.

n a second Fraser Institute report, also released Tuesday, Deferring Federal Taxes: Illustrating the Deficit Using the GST, the fiscally-conservative think tank said Trudeau would have had to raise the GST to 9% from its current 5% to balance the federal government’s books this year, even before the COVID-19 recession hit.

“Because of the federal government’s lack of fiscal prudence recently, Ottawa’s finances were much worse than they should have been going into this recession,” Clemens said.

“The additional spending the government has announced in response to the recession and COVID will exacerbate that problem and means that Canadian taxpayers will be on the hook for today’s spending for decades to come.”

The Fraser reports’ numbers are consistent with previous findings by Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux.

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More worryingly, three-quarters of businesses expect the global recession to last longer than Oxford’s own baseline view of two quarters.

“A global recession lasting three quarters remains the most common expectation. But an increasing number of businesses expect a lengthier recession, with almost a quarter (23 per cent) expecting the recession to last longer than four quarters and into 2021 (compared to 15 per cent who felt that way in April),” the survey noted.

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A new report by the C.D. Howe Institute warns the Liberal government against “turning one-off deficits into structural deficits” as Canada comes out of the first COVID-19 wave, and urges Ottawa to “restore fiscal maneuvering room” as soon as possible.

Ottawa must look to rein in spending to address its ballooning deficit in coming months and create new revenue sources such as possibly taxing international tech giants like Google, Facebook and Netflix.

(Sidebar: like those companies will let you do that.)

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Armchair economists have been pushing for this for ages but don't realise that they will either have to lower wages and raise taxes to make it happen:

Chris Higgins, professor emeritus at Western University’s Ivey Business School, said a compressed four-day work week could be suitable for white-collar employees.

“It’s perfect for white collar,” Prof. Higgins said. “Everybody will love it.”

However, for blue-collar workers the idea of four 10-hour work days a week is more problematic, he said, noting some of them could get more fatigued, leading to more accidents and sick leave.

Still, he estimates that for about 30 or 40 per cent of the population four-day work weeks could be doable and beneficial.

Don't apologise. Quebec needs your oil for its welfare:

Alberta's energy minister isn't backing away from her comments that COVID-19's public health rules and economic fears favour pipeline construction.

"I don't think anybody should be surprised that Alberta is pro-pipeline," Sonya Savage said Tuesday in an interview.

On Friday, Savage spoke on a podcast held by an industry group.

"Now is a great time to be building a pipeline, because you can't have protests of more than 15 people," the energy minister said. "Let's get it built."