Lauzon: Expert Report Gives Canada’s Economic Action Plan Top Grade

March 18, 2009

 

There are lots of indicators of an economy’s strength.

Job security. Money in our pockets. How well local businesses are doing.

There are other indicators that Canadians hear about but which don’t seem to be a part of our everyday lives. We hear about GDP. We’re told about interest rates going up and down. We also listen to experts who study economies and explain how it all fits together.

Recently, the experts at the International Monetary Fund gave a report on how Canada is dealing with our economic difficulties.

As difficult as things are for us, the IMF reports that Canada is in a stronger position than many of our international allies. The IMF report said, “Canada is better placed than many countries to weather the global financial turbulence and worldwide recession.” This is because the Conservative government took early action to strengthen and safeguard Canada’s economy.

We paid down our debt in good times so we would have more room to manoeuvre in tougher times.

We lowered taxes across the board to help make Canadian companies more competitive and so that families could have more of their own money to spend with their local businesses.

And we strengthened our banks and financial system to ensure that they could deal with the pressure building outside of Canada.

It is actions like these that have contributed to Canada’s comparative strength in the global economic crisis.

Then in January, after consultations with the provinces, business leaders, the opposition parties and ordinary Canadians, we introduced Canada’s Economic Action Plan. The IMF report praised both the size and the speed with which our Plan was developed and said that it will strengthen and stimulate Canada’s economy.

Canada’s Economic Action Plan will help to take Canada through this global economic crisis, while paving the way for a more competitive future. It enhances protection for workers and families. It cuts taxes to stimulate spending. Our plan also invests billions in new roads, bridges, sewers and other infrastructure projects that will create jobs and strengthen local economies in communities like ours.

This builds on Canada’s advantage from our earlier actions.

The most critical point from the IMF report is that Canada’s Economic Action Plan is solid.

“The IMF supports the strong fiscal package announced in January, which was large, timely, and well targeted, and it will buoy demand during the downturn,” said the report. “With the global outlook marked by unusually high uncertainty, Canada has prudently taken proactive steps.”

And now we are putting our Plan into action.

The Liberal-dominated Senate finally saw fit to pass the budget after over a week of deliberation. Their obstructions have already delayed action during a period when time was of the essence.

What’s worse is these same Liberals say that they didn’t realize that our budget would, once passed, start helping Canadians right away. Perhaps they should have actually read the Bill they claim to have been studying.

Sadly, their petty, partisan, delaying tactics only served to hurt families who needed support right away.

Canadians must not forget that, at a time when workers and families who are looking to their officials in Ottawa for leadership during this challenging time, the Liberals took steps that held Canada back when we could have been moving forward.

Guy Lauzon, MP
Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry