Roundup: Cheques doing double duty

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While former Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page says that if we go into a technically recession, it should be contained as there is still growth in other sectors beyond oil and gas, Pierre Poilievre has been out spinning yet another tale over the weekend. Not content to show that the universal childcare benefit cheques due in the mail this month are nakedly partisan attempts at vote buying (and those of us of a certain age will remember when Ralph Klein would send out cheques to help Albertans pay for the cost of natural gas conveniently as elections were around the corner), Poilievre has ensured that the cheques get a second political purpose – they are now to also count as economic stimulus. Which of course they would be – but not very much, according to Don Drummond. As well, the government keeps saying they’re making all of these infrastructure investments, but the vast majority of them are still years down the road, and their Canada 150 infrastructure programme is going to be very small-time, and is also unlikely to have much in the way of lasting economic benefit. So we can expect these kinds of talking points to be repeated ad nauseum for the next few weeks as the campaign heats up, and until we get the numbers from StatsCan on September 1st as to whether we’re in a recession or not.

https://twitter.com/mikepmoffatt/status/620328712375025668

https://twitter.com/mikepmoffatt/status/620331491910881285

https://twitter.com/mikepmoffatt/status/620331708169195520

https://twitter.com/mikepmoffatt/status/620332221707235329

Good reads:

  • The Canadian Press investigates a security breach at the Canadian embassy in Kyiv during the uprising last year, where our giving shelter to protesters made us an active participant in regime change, and may cause problems with our allies.
  • The Prime Minister of Ukraine will be in Ottawa this week to sign a trade agreement between our two countries.
  • Technical glitches, staff shortages and poor planning means that Veterans Affairs can’t cope with the volume of calls they’re getting. What cuts to front-line services?
  • Yet another procurement process has gone awry, this time radar systems for our CF-18 bases.
  • Shannon Gormley considers the many ironies of the Monument to the Victims of Communism debacle.

Odds and ends:

Public service executives are getting a mere half-percent raise, and having their bonus pay tied to individual goals.