“It is really up to the wealthy countries of Europe to put up their reserves, to put up taxpayers’ money, to overwhelm the problem once and for all, as the Americans did back in the latter part of 2008,” he said Monday.
Facing a financial meltdown as the recent global recession hit, the Obama administration came up with a $787 billion (U.S.) plan to stabilize the American banking system and prop up the U.S. economy.
Flaherty, who held a news conference to talk about the reverberations from Greece, has often said that Europeans have the money to solve their financial crisis but have provided only Band-Aid solutions instead of the needed massive fix.
“This serious issue in Europe has gone on for several years now. The situation has not improved significantly. Many of the banks remain under-capitalized. The sovereign indebtedness situation in a number of the European countries remains dire,” he said.
Flaherty said, while Canadians banks are not overly exposed, the threat of spreading financial troubles in Europe is worrisome. “We need to be concerned about the fallout, the shock to financial systems from this very uncertain situation in Greece and in other euro-zone countries,” he told reporters.
He argued that the rising uncertainty is all the more reason for Parliament to quickly pass his budget implementation legislation. Opposition Members of Parliament are trying to slow passage of the 425-page omnibus legislation because they say it contains too many far-reaching changes to environmental, social and economic laws.
Flaherty also brushed aside concerns that the government’s tougher new Employment Insurance rules will deprive EI recipients of benefits if they turn down jobs Ottawa believes are suitable for their skills and pay level.
“There is no bad job. The only bad job is not having a job,” he said, noting that at one time he worked as a taxi driver and a hockey referee.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Les Whittington
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