Kevin Page Will Not be Back After His Contract is Done

Kevin Page, the budget officer who has had to work under Stephen Harper's totalitarianism, has stated that he will not stay on when his contract is through.

But he offers some very good advice, for the person who replaces him.

Page said he wants lawmakers to amend the rules that govern his office, removing it from the auspices of the Library of Parliament, the legislature’s research arm. Page also wants lawmakers, not the prime minister, to have the power to appoint and fire the budget officer.

“I don’t think it’d be right for me to say ‘This is what it needs to be,’ and then all of a sudden, I benefit by that,” Page, 52, said in an interview yesterday at Bloomberg’s office in Ottawa. “It should benefit the next person. The real beneficiaries would be Canadians, really.”

I hope he changes his mind. Stephen Harper will soon be a distant bad memory, and Mr. Page was one of the few to stand up to the dictator and not lose his head.

Parliamentary Budget Officer to Prepare Report on the Impact of an Aging Population

Back in January when the budget first came out, I remember being on a discussion board, where I raised concerns about more tax cuts. I questioned whether or not this government had taken into account the fact that we were an aging population and that the Baby Boomers would soon be tapping into the services they once propped up. Why were we further reducing our revenue?

I was shouted down and my concerns dismissed. However, I was pleased to learn today that our parliamentary budget officer will be preparing a report on that very subject, because it needs to be addressed and taken seriously.

We can't simply start cutting services for those who have earned the right to those services, but we need to be realistic. Our economy is stagnating.

Canadian economic growth potential half of historic average: TD Bank

OTTAWA - The Canadian economy is headed for a decade of stagnant growth that will test the budgets of governments and ordinary Canadians, says a new TD Bank report.

The bank (TSX:TD) says a combination of post-recession adjustments, the aging population and low productivity will limit Canada's potential growth to about two per cent over the next 10 years. That is two-thirds the level of growth experienced the previous two decades, the report says ....

Harper Apologizes and Admits He's Wrong in the Same Week. Maybe Pigs Really Can Fly.

It's been quite a week for Stephen Harper. Communions, misquotes and 'dumb' remarks.

If he blamed bad food in Peru on his actions that caused the Parliamentary Crisis, was there something in the water in Italy?

Harper who never apologizes, actually said he was sorry to Michael Ignatieff, not for another venomous partisan attack, but for misquoting him.

Now, after calling the predictions and recommendations made by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, Kevin Page, dumb; he's admitting that he is wrong. (Now mind you, it doesn't mean he's going to take the advice of an economist with far more experience than him. That would be asking too much).

Flying pigs, flying donkeys, hell freezing over ... all three at once? There's definitely something going on here, and I've got to admit, I'm a little frightened. Just how bad are things?

Harper abandons time limit on deficits

Jul 10, 2009
Tonda MacCharles

Les Whittington

Ottawa Bureau

L'AQUILA, Italy–Prime Minister Stephen Harper has scrapped his government's controversial promise to stop running annual budget deficits in five years.

For the first time, Harper said today that keeping the government's pledge to balance Ottawa's books by 2013-14 will depend on how quickly Canada's economy recovers.

"We will allow the deficit to persist if necessary," Harper said. "We will not, in order to meet some timetable, start raising taxes and cutting programs."

Until today, the Conservatives had insisted they had a timetable to end deficit financing. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty had brushed aside critics who said the government's spending initiatives and massive tax cuts would make it impossible to return to budget surpluses by 2013-14.

But Harper told reporters after the G8 summit in Italy that the government won't be bound by that promise.

He said a recovery in the Canadian economy will be "well under way" by early 2011, which will result in higher tax revenues and lower expenses for Ottawa.

But "if the recession turns out to be longer than that, for example, or the recovery turns out to be shallower, then that will change the pattern of the recovery from the current deficit," Harper said.

The Prime Minister was responding to comments earlier this week by Kevin Page, the independent parliamentary budget officer, who said the government's budget deficits are so large that Harper could only balance Ottawa's books in five years by raising taxes or slashing programs.

The Prime Minister insisted that, even if government revenues are slower to recover than predicted, he would not hike taxes or cut programs. "That's a very dumb policy," Harper told reporters.

He criticized Page, whose fiscal projections he said were more "pessimistic" than most.

Page said this week that cumulative federal budget deficits in the next five years will reach a whopping $156 billion, half again as high as the Harper government has predicted.

Harper said the global economy is still fragile and he does not yet advocate winding down stimulus spending.

Despite having recently claimed that 80 per cent of the government's billions in stimulus spending is committed, Harper admitted today it is a challenge to ensure the money actually gets spent. "It's a reality that it is tough to get it out the door."

Dumb Da Dumb Dumb. A Little Music to Walk the Plank By

We learned this week from Canada's Parliamentary Budget officer that if this government doesn't curb their spending and raise taxes, especially the GST; this country is going to be in serious trouble.

George Bush's theory of economic bliss, failed and it failed miserably. It's time we move on, and bring back a little fiscal responsibility.

While in Italy at the G8 Summit, Stephen Harper couldn't wait to throw his two cents in, and that was about all it was worth.

With intellect and diplomacy, he mustered his best grasp of the English language and called Kevin Page's predictions 'dumb'.... 'dumb'???? What is he, six?

Mr. Page is an officer of the Government of Canada, and the best our Prime Minister can do is critique his predictions and recommendations, as 'DUMB'!!!

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in Italy on Friday he won't follow the "dumb" advice from Parliament's budget officer by raising taxes to balance Canada's post-recession books.

We will not start raising taxes and cutting programs. That's a very dumb policy and, to the extent, frankly, that the parliamentary budget officer suggested it, it's a dumb position," he said.

I was reading the press announcement, when not long ago the Conservatives were touting his expertise, selling him as the jewel in the crown of their (non-existent) Accountability Act. Yet today he is just DUMB??

Mr. Page is highly qualified for this position. He is no stranger to the federal budget. In his 25-year career as a public servant, he has worked on fiscal forecasting, policy and expenditure portfolios for three key departments: the Department of Finance, the Privy Council Office and the Treasury Board. He also has experience in farm financial programs.

Like Stephen Harper, Kevin Page has a Masters in Economics, but unlike Stephen Harper, he has 25 years working as an economist. Harper has not worked in his profession for one single day. Before entering politics Jim Flaherty was a personal injuries lawyer. So who's dumb and dumber here?

Harper got it all wrong, budget watchdog says
Jul 07, 2009
Toronto Star
Les Whittington
OTTAWA BUREAU

OTTAWA – Canada could shed a total of 1.2 million jobs this year and next, the parliamentary budget watchdog predicts.

Suggesting that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has vastly underestimated the impact of the economic recession, Kevin Page says the employment picture is much worse than the federal Conservatives predicted in the January budget.

Page also says the Harper government's claim that it will be able to stop running annual budget deficits in five years cannot be believed. He says that in 2013-14, instead of balancing its books, Ottawa will still run a $16.7 billion deficit, according to those who have seen the independent budget officer's latest findings.

The cumulative federal budget deficit over five years will hit $155.9 billion, Page forecasts. Based on recent government estimates, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's calculations call for a cumulative deficit of only about $100 billion over five years.

Page, appointed parliamentary budget officer last year, has consistently produced economic forecasts that have proven more accurate than those from Flaherty and private-sector economists.

The latest report has been provided to the House of Commons finance committee and will be made public later this week.

In it, Page says the medium-term outlook for employment is "significantly weaker" than predicted in Flaherty's Jan. 27 budget. Conservative MP Ted Menzies, Flaherty's parliamentary secretary, said the government has acknowledged that unemployment is going to get worse.

"Anyone can guess at what the unemployment numbers are going to be," he said.

Menzies (Macleod) also said that Page's deficit projection failed to take account of possible billions of dollars in savings on government programs or extra revenue from the sale of major Crown assets. (The Harper government will be subsidizing buyers, and the buildings they already sold, we needed, so are now leasing them back. There will be little or no revenue.)

Page's report says unemployment, currently at 8.4 per cent, will average 8.7 per cent this year, compared with Flaherty's estimate of 7.5 per cent for 2009. Page sees the jobless rate going as high as 9.4 per cent in 2010.

Based on the government's forecast, Canada stands to lose 160,000 jobs in 2009. But Page says the worse-than-predicted employment picture means that actual total job losses in 2009 could go as high as 530,000.

For 2010, the government's forecast of 7.7 per cent unemployment suggests about 200,000 jobs could disappear. But Page says job losses next year could be as high as 700,000.

Liberal MP John McKay (Scarborough-Guildwood) said Page's latest report proves the Conservatives are dreaming when they claim the government can quickly return to balanced books in a few years.

"This is a structural deficit, no ifs, ands or buts about it," McKay said.

Another Civil Servant Who Refuses to be Muzzled

'Fascist governments forbid and suppress criticism and opposition to the government..' (Wikipedia)

As Stephen Harper constantly moves to turning Canada into a police state, more senior civil servants are speaking out.

They do not work for Stephen Harper, they work for us; so while he may muzzle his caucus (who theoretically also work for us), he cannot stop officials, especially those with watchdog agencies, from reporting honestly to the Canadian public.

Do Tories want watchdog or lapdog?

Jun 24, 2009

Richard J. Brennan

OTTAWA BUREAU

OTTAWA – Parliamentary budget watchdog Kevin Page says the Conservative government is doing its best to put him out of business.

"This is a litmus test for democracy," Page, a veteran public servant, told the Toronto Star.

Sitting in his downtown Ottawa office, Page is reminded of a quotation from legendary Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward: "Democracies die in darkness."

"When you are in power it is less easy to want this kind of oversight," Page said.

Stinging from Page's report last October that put an $18 billion price tag on the Afghanistan war, among other embarrassing revelations, the government slashed his budget for this fiscal year from $2.8 million to $1.8 million.

"Our budget is cut and I am in an almost impossible situation. ... I cannot carry out my mandate," Page said, adding that while funding is crucial, transparency is equally important.

Page's Parliamentary Budget Office, which is oddly connected to the Parliamentary Library, provides independent analysis on economic trends, scrutinizes government estimates and spending and works with the House of Commons and Senate finance committees and the public accounts committee.

Liberal MP Bob Rae said rather than trying to muzzle the budget officer, Page should be encouraged to do even more.

"He is making a tremendous contribution to the development of strong public policy and should be encouraged rather than attacked by the government," Rae said.

Page's office made waves last October with the release of the Afghanistan report, and late in November released a controversial economic statement that warned of a recession and a deficit. (While Flaherty was still in denial, or at least denying it to us)

"At the end of the day, it is taxpayers who pay my salary, and the $1.8 million that they gave me for the first years, and why (shouldn't) they see everything I do," he said. "How can you have accountability without transparency?"

Page, who was appointed in March 2008, fears the Conservative government thought he would be a lapdog, not a watchdog.

"Going back to last fall, after releasing some of those big reports, some people were saying, `Oh, wait a minute here, we thought we were going to get another research librarian.'"

Following a recent heated exchange in question period, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said when the government created the office it was designed to report on budgetary matters to MPs rather than them having to go through the government to get information.

"That's the purpose; it isn't to be an auditor general of some sort because we have an auditor general," Flaherty later told reporters.

Université de Moncton political scientist Donald Savoie argues that officers of Parliament have taken over the kind of oversight that MPs themselves should be doing.

"We've really disempowered Parliament. The role that Parliament, parties, and leaders of the opposition used to play is now being played by officers of Parliament.
"Officers of Parliament are accountable to no one ... ."

Mr. Savoie may be right to a certain extent, but when the government constantly lies and hides information from the public, someone has got to step up to provide us with the facts.