Mulcair interpreted some of the numbers for the government side. The PBO, he said, had declared that putting an end to the economic stimulus signified 125,000 fewer jobs in the Canadian economy. That was a mild simplification.
Here’s what the PBO report said:
Based on Finance Canada’s estimated “multipliers” (i.e., the dollar impact on real GDP of a permanent one-dollar change in spending), PBO estimates that in the absence of the Government’s planned spending reductions and restraint, which amount to $48.2 billion over 2012-13 to 2016-17 – all else equal – real GDP would be approximately 1 per cent higher annually, on average, over 2014 to 2016 than projected. Further, the level of employment – across the entire economy – in 2016 would be 0.7 per cent (approximately 125,000 jobs) higher than projected.
But Mulcair was making a point. Why, he wondered, did the government put an end to economic stimulus measures and sacrifice 125,000 jobs?
The prime minister was absent Tuesday, so Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird got up to answer instead. He offered a few simplifications of his own.
“When this government came forward with thoughtful ideas to help Canada’s economic action plan, the NDP voted against them,” Baird told the House. “When we came forward with money for municipalities, the NDP voted against it. When we came forward with investments for affordable housing, the NDP voted against them.”
And he also had a number.
“Despite the NDP voting against all of these measures, they have helped create more than 800,000 net new jobs,” Baird said.
Mulcair was undeterred, and he continued with his next question. This is his style. He doesn’t really build on each question; instead he acts like an orator posing rhetorical queries, sitting down while the government provides a response, and then standing again to continue along his own narrative path.
“Yesterday, in the House the minister of state for finance said, ‘Our economic projections are on track.’ Simultaneously outside the House, the Minister of Finance was forced to admit that he had to downgrade the same economic projections,” Mulcair said.
“Where is their applause now?” he asked, rhetorically, to a silent government side.
A few errant handclaps were heard from the backbenches.
“Who is telling the truth?” Mulcair continued, obviously not waiting for an answer to his last question. Was it the minister of state “when he says everything is on track,” he wondered, or was it “the finance minister when he admits the Conservative economic plan has gone off the rails?”
Baird stood again.
“It will not come as any surprise to the leader of the NDP that I totally reject the premise of that question,” Baird said.
“Let’s look at the reality,” he said. “We have seen economic growth month after month, we have seen more jobs, more hope, more opportunity,” Baird told the House. Those things, he went on, were possible because of the “thoughtful policies pursued” by the finance minister and the minister of state “who have done an extraordinary job.”
Mulcair stood a final time and noted that, since the 2008 economic crisis, youth unemployment in Canada has hit 15 percent. So, he said, why not give Canadian youth a chance to contribute to the economy with good jobs and real careers?
Baird returned to a familiar talking point – in fact, one he’d just recited a few minutes earlier.
“This government will not be satisfied until every single Canadian who is looking for work has employment. That is why we have come forward with initiatives to support small business, we have come forward with initiatives to reduce taxes, we have come forward with initiatives on infrastructure,” he said.
Then, the usual kicker.
“These initiatives, as part of our economic action plan, have helped create more than 800,000 net new jobs,” Baird said.
Not long after question period finished, the finance committee had the chance to ask Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney some questions about the Canadian economy. One Conservative, Dave Van Kesteren, asked how the nation is doing on job creation compared to other countries, and whether the jobs created are of good quality.
The short answers: pretty good, and yes. A lot of the jobs, Carney said, were good quality, full-time jobs in industries with decent wages. But Canada is still in a position where “more Canadians want to work than are working,” he said.
These factors are important from a monetary policy perspective, “because they illustrate a degree of slack that still exists in the labour market, measured across the country as a whole,” Carney told the committee. “Which is why monetary policy … continues to be, and should continue to be, very accommodating.”
And how many jobs have been created?
“We’ve fully recovered the jobs lost in the recession – the 400,000-odd jobs lost in the recession – and then added additional jobs … about 380,000 net new jobs,” Carney said.
Original Article
Source: ipolitics
Author: Colin Horgan
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