Liberal Finance Critic John McCallum said today’s speech by Minister Flaherty leaves Canada down a deep fiscal hole after wasting the opportunity to invest in Canada’s future economy.
“Never has so much been spent to achieve so little,” said Mr. McCallum. “The Harper Conservatives wasted a historic opportunity to invest in Canada’s future economic growth, and instead chose to waste billions in public funds on advertising, signage and pork-barrel projects to further their political interests.
“Growing Canada’s future economy requires investments in clean energy technology, rebuilding our manufacturing sector, and leadership in science, research and development. The Conservatives have made no such investments – and instead cut scientific funding. Now we find ourselves down a deep deficit hole, with no promise of better jobs or a better future for Canadians,” he said.
Today’s most recent bankruptcy figures show how Canadians are suffering like never before due to this government’s neglect of our economy’s needs. Industry Canada today reported a whopping 47 percent increase in personal bankruptcies in September from a year earlier.
“The Conservative legacy of fiscal failure is affecting us now, while at the same time has saddled future generations with a deficit that will not go away once stimulus spending stops without new economic growth,” said Mr. McCalllum. “They have squandered the Liberal legacy of fiscal responsibility and sustained structural surpluses.”
While Minister Flaherty blames his sudden conversion to fiscal austerity on short-term stimulus spending, the Conservatives had mismanaged the nation’s finances into structural deficit before the recession began, with spending growth that outpaced revenue growth.
“The Conservatives spent the cupboard bare while the times were good, and didn’t invest in the future when times were tough,” said Mr. McCallum. “Mr. Flaherty’s latest bout of finance fiction is in keeping with his projections on the recession and the deficit that were later found to have zero credibility.”
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