Tag: economy

No other way to say it: The BC Government is fudging its job creation record

  • While Clark campaigns to be number one on job creation, BC is actually the worst in the West and 4th worst in Canada
  • BC government is making false claims about the performance of the BC Jobs Plan

The headline news from Statistics Canada Friday morning was not good for the government of Premier Christy Clark. In it’s monthly jobs report, Statscan reported an unexpected and surprising jobs boom in Ontario and Quebec but the worst performing province in November compared to October was B.C. Statscan reported 4,700 jobs were lost in B.C. in the month and the unemployment rate rose to 6.8% from 6.7%. Continue reading No other way to say it: The BC Government is fudging its job creation record

Latest job numbers: BC is number one — in job losses

“I’m going to run on (being) number one in job creation,” BC Premier Christy Clark told the Liberal Party of BC convention last Saturday, boasting at one point that BC had created 57,000 jobs and that that was more than any province in Canada.

At the time, as I pointed out in a blog post, that claim was not true based on the most recent 12 consecutive months of jobs data for BC (and the country) as provided by Statistics Canada.

On Saturday, the most recent numbers available were for September, 2012.

Today, Statistics Canada released the numbers for October, 2012 and they were awful for British Columbia.

Continue reading Latest job numbers: BC is number one — in job losses

Do Christy Clark's boasts on job creation hold up? Nope. Nada. Not even close.

On Saturday, BC Premier Christy Clark spoke to her party’s convention in Whistler, B.C. During the speech, she mentioned several times that B.C. was leading the country when it came to job creation.

For example, as the Vancouver Sun‘s Jonathan Fowlie reported, Clark said, “I’m going to run on (being) number one in job creation.” The Globe‘s Gary Mason, reporting on the speech,wrote, “As expected, there was lots of talk about recent job-creation numbers that ranked B.C. first in the country.” Dirk Meissner of the Canadian Press wrote: “She [Clark] said B.C. has created 57,000 jobs over the last year, more than any other province in Canada.”

That last claim is demonstrably false and the others are pretty wobbly too. Continue reading Do Christy Clark's boasts on job creation hold up? Nope. Nada. Not even close.

Our banks are number one! Our governments, er, not so much

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has just released its 2011-2012 Global Competitiveness Index. One datapoint in that index that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and most of the Conservative caucus have clung to like a lifeline over the last few years is this one: Canada is ranked number one in the world when it comest to “Soundness of Banks.”  We’ve held that title since 2008 and we’re number one again this year. That guarantees that that talking point will be a highlight of Harper’s speeches abroad and around the country. In fact, he can boast of this statistic once again tomorrow when he speaks at a conference in Vancouver organized by the Bloomberg news service for investors and the like.

The Harper government — along with provincial governments — may also wish to boast over these two other data points: Continue reading Our banks are number one! Our governments, er, not so much

Carney vs Myers: Economists face off over "dead money"

The line story on Bay Street’s favourite newspaper, The Globe and Mail, had a great eye-catching headline courtesy of Bank of Canada Mark Carney:

This is Dead Money

Carney, responding to questions from reporters, noted that Canadian companies (not including banks and insurance companies) now have $562 billion in cash in the bank, up from $370 billion in 2009. That $562 billion represents about 13.2 per cent of total assets — an all-time high — compared to 10.3 per cent of total assets in 2009. Continue reading Carney vs Myers: Economists face off over "dead money"

Ottawa spends — and spends, and spends, a spends.

MPs are not in the House of Commons this week. This is a “break week” or “riding week.” It is also the kind of week when government MPs run about the country handing out cheques. I’ve been tracking these ceremonies ever since the last federal election. I do this through a real-time Twitter project known as @OttawaSpends and, from time-to-time I summarize the data here.

It is now just 2 pm Ottawa time on this first business day of this break week and, so far, government MPs have been been busy with 12 announcements in various parts of the country during which more than $101 million was committed, spent or celebrated. Continue reading Ottawa spends — and spends, and spends, a spends.

'Dutch Disease' metaphor wrong for Canada

Mike Moffatt, an economist and assistant professor at Western University in London, Ont., and I assess NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair’s claim that Canadian resource development, particularly in the oilsands, have given Canada’s economy “Dutch Disease”:

 

Housing bubble crisis? Maclean's vs. The Bank of Canada

Two national institutions, the Bank of Canada and the newsmagazine Maclean’s, are out with new publications today with starkly different conclusions about the real estate market and household debt in this country. As it’s still relatively early, I have yet to read either but look forward to doing so. In the meantime,  we’ll let BMO Capital Markets deputy chief economist Douglas Porter officiate on the substantive issue at hand: Housing crisis or no? Here’s his thoughts from his morning comment (with his emphasis but my hyperlinks): Continue reading Housing bubble crisis? Maclean's vs. The Bank of Canada