Or something:
Justin Trudeau not only doesn’t know what a litre of milk costs, he and his government don’t get why this is an issue. Time and again when asked about inflation, Trudeau and his ministers respond by talking about their plan for $10-a-day child care.
Deflection, Mr. Lilley.
**
Does the Liberal government have a money tree hidden some place? That’s what some focus group participants wondered aloud in reaction to the last federal budget, according to research commissioned by Finance Canada.
Last April, as Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland delivered the first budget speech in two years in which she announced $101 billion in massive new spending measures, 32 Canadians sat watching with a dial in their hand, rating every new promise and expense.
They were part of a focus group assembled by polling firm Leger at the behest of Finance Canada as part of a $53,445 contract for public opinion research.
The goal of the research was to provide Freeland’s department with insight into people’s opinions on the budget and offer direction to the government.
And the opinions expressed by participants indeed went in every direction, although everyone generally ended up expressing a positive opinion of a spending blueprint designed to be liked.
“In the words of many participants, it would be difficult to be negative about this budget that included elements to ‘satisfy everyone in Canada’, was in continuity with the efforts to limit the negative impacts of the pandemic on Canadians, as well as a ‘recovery-oriented budget,’ ” Leger notes in the report obtained by the National Post.
But the initial positive impression quickly gave way to cynicism and skepticism amongst many participants, with some describing it as an “electoral budget” and many concerned that certain measures would never be implemented or that the Liberals would not be able to deliver on their promises.
The focus groups were divided into four categories: parents of children aged 0 to 6 years old, seniors (over 65 years old), people who received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and Quebecers.
Among the four groups surveyed, seniors were the most critical of the budget (though it was still “well received”), expressing skepticism about how all the promises would be implemented and then how everything would be paid for.
“I just feel that the government must have a money tree some place; I don’t know how they’re going to be able to pluck it all off the tree to do what they say they’re gonna do,” one told Leger.
Among the worst-rated moments of Freeland’s speech for seniors: any references to the “sacrifices youth and young adults made as a result of the pandemic.”
“You could detect a generation gap when it comes to COVID impacts,” Leger concludes.
(Sidebar: not smart.)
The parents surveyed gave high marks to a wide swath of the budget, including all promises of more money for early childhood education and care, increasing minimum wage, more assistance for family businesses and job creation, and any support to the younger generation of Canadians.
(Sidebar: you DO know that you are living on printed money and that your kids have no future, right?)
But many were concerned that it was an “election budget” and that the Liberals’ proposed luxury tax on boats (worth over $250,000) and cars (worth over $100,000) was neither inclusive nor bold enough.
**
The rising cost of living will be more persistent and long-lasting than officialdom admits, says a former chief economic analyst with Statistics Canada. “Containing inflation may not be a simple or short process,” wrote Philip Cross, senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an Ottawa think tank: “Economists did not foresee the surge in prices.”
**
"If you make something attestation-based, you are increasing the risk of fraud," she said.
"We knew the risk was there, but it was calculated and we also knew we had to get the money to Canadians. So we took the risk and we're going to work really hard at the back end to minimize what that's going to mean for the government purse."
And there's this:
There is no doubt some Canadians abused one of the best-known pandemic relief programs, a senior Liberal MP said yesterday. Claims for $2,000 Canada Emergency Response Benefit cheques were six times the number of Covid jobless: “That is an incredible percentage of the population.”**
A new Liberal senator billed thousands for flights, meals and other costs charged as Senate business while Parliament was in recess, records show. Authorities yesterday defended expenses billed by David Arnot of Saskatoon when the Senate was adjourned and he had not yet taken the oath of office: “He was eligible.”
**
For those debating if the way to fill millions of job openings in the U.S. is to open the doors again to immigrants, a glance north of the border is illuminating.
Canada, unlike the U.S., quickly started welcoming foreign workers and students again after a brief pandemic halt in what is part of a years-old, pro-immigration policy that’s provided its economy with a much more work-ready labor force.
About 1.9 million newcomers entered the country in the five years through December, an increase of more than 50% from the previous five years.
The results are simultaneously terrific and problematic: Companies have been filling job postings at a breakneck clip in recent months, pushing payrolls back above pre-pandemic levels and allowing them to ramp output back up. But workers, with fewer labor shortages acting as leverage, are scoring tiny wage increases -- currently running at 2% on average -- that leave them poorer after inflation of almost 5% is factored in.
Immigration = cheap (even slave) labour and we all know it.
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