In the Blog
Boo-urns Budget
Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty wants to know what we think.
http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/wp-content/uploads/2008/02
No, I’m not joshin’ you.
The Department of Finance Canada has created a survey on their website, encouraging Canadians to voice their opinion on what matters the most for the upcoming budget. The last time Flaherty made a fiscal statement, he was met with public outcry for failing to include a stimulus plan, and for cutting subsidies for political parties (see below the cut for what all this means).
What got lost in the shuffle amid the economic meltdown was that he also quietly included “modernizing pay equity” in his national plan. This meant concocting the term “double pay equity,” which passes the responsibility of fair wages for women off to unions, while ignoring the fact that many female workers are not actually unionized.
And according to rabble.ca, in 2009: - A woman with a post-secondary degree can expect to earn around 69% of what her male counterparts will earn - Just over two-thirds of minimum wage earners are women - One in five Canadian women live in poverty
I guess it’s just too darn expensive to put effort into preventing women from being continually exploited in the workplace. A tough economic storm to weather, indeed.
In case you missed the hyperlink, the Ministry of Finance’s survey can be found here.
It only takes a few minutes, and there is space available to type in your thoughts.
Not sure what all the terms mean? Here’s a quick breakdown:
Fiscal: When the government spends money or changes taxes, it’s fiscal policy. One category of fiscal policy is loosely known as stimulus.
Stimulus: In a recession, there isn’t enough demand in the economy - people aren’t buying enough. The government can make up for some of this missing demand by spending money itself, on services, or by hiring people, or by directly supporting companies. The trick is to give money to someone who will, in turn, spend it. There’s a lot of disagreement over whether that’s even possible.
Infrastructure: Stimulus programs often involve building more infrastructure - roads, schools, and other things that we need anyway to function as a society. A lot of infrastructure has been badly neglected in the US (and in Canada) over the last few decades, so this seems as good a time as any to catch up.
