The House of Commons Finance Committee began accepting pre-budget submissions today from various interest groups. John McCallum (left), the former chief economist at the Royal Bank of Canada and the current finance critic in the Liberal caucus, opened up the Liberal discussions on the next budget with the following ‘framing statement’ (I have lightly edited it):
“It is bordering on fraudulent or insulting to invite Canadians to submit budget proposals on competitiveness when the last budget emptied the fiscal cupboard while doing essentially nothing for productivity or competitiveness. [The] latest numbers from [governnment and private sector experts] indicate less than $2 billion per year until the end of the decade, and that's before paying anything for fiscal imbalance, environment, Afghanistan extension, etc.
So one of our focuses will be to ask people whether last year's budget did anything for their competitiveness or productivity.”