LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Oliver’s peek-a-boo game comes to an end

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Oliver’s peek-a-boo game comes to an end

MP CHRYSTIA FREELAND

Dear editor,

It’s no wonder Finance Minister Joe Oliver has been in hiding, refusing to answer questions about his management of the economy in the House of Commons on most days.

There’s simply nothing good Mr. Oliver can say about the Conservatives’ ineffectual management of our nation’s finances and economy.

Net taxes have gone up in each of their last five budgets.  Three-quarters of a billion dollars has been wasted on partisan ads and spending on costly outside contracting has ballooned by $3 billion a year.

And the economy has suffered. Stephen Harper has had the worst rate of economic growth of any Prime Minister since R.B. Bennett during the Great Depression. Some 200,000 more Canadians are unemployed now than before the recession, long term unemployment remains elevated and job quality has hit an all-time low. Job growth has slowed for the past two years and unemployment is forecast to rise.

All of the chartered banks have chopped their forecasts. The Bank of Canada says that economic growth is “atrocious” and requires “considerable monetary stimulus to avoid falling back into recession”.

It is grossly irresponsible that Mr. Oliver—who is responsible to manage our economy—simply ducked all this bad news. But his peak-a-boo will come to an end when the budget is tabled on April 21, after an unprecedented delay.

His signature promise to balance the books relies on the price of oil remaining at $81 (US) a barrel—yet recently it has fluctuated around $50. His major initiative is income splitting, a $2 billion tax break for the rich that will do nothing for growth.

We can’t keep going this way. Canada needs to spur growth. Infrastructure investment would be an effective way to invest in our economy and a valuable source of middle-class jobs. Stronger public education is more important than ever in today’s high-skills job market. The decline of the middle-class must be reversed.

It’s high time we hang a new sign in front of our government: under new management.

Yours sincerely,
Chrystia Freeland, MP
Liberal Party of Canada