No wonder the Conservatives stirred up a controversy this morning with some weird, random, anti-Muslim nonsense. It was a calculated diversion from this:
There’s a $10-billion difference between the government’s estimates and those of Parliament’s budget watchdog when it comes to Canada’s structural budget balance, the budget officer, Kevin Page, reported Monday. Since 2006, Finance Canada’s estimates have been, on average, $10 billion higher than the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s estimates. Structural budgets are defined as the budgetary balance that would be observed if the economy were operating at its full potential. Structural budgets can be important for policy planning. Page’s report says that between 1975 and 2005, estimates are closely aligned and within about $1 billion of each other. They begin diverging in 2006 and he says the discrepancy largely comes from differences in estimates of how well the economy is performing relative to its potential. Finance Canada’s estimate of the structural budget balance last year is $17 billion higher than the PBO’s estimate, Page reported.
Make up a bogus “problem” to distract the sheeples from the real issue — namely, the Harper government can’t budget worth spit. Well played, Tories, well played.
