OTTAWA – Three members of the Liberal Party’s economic team today presented Canadians with a choice between the current Conservative government and a future Liberal government that will reduce the economic pressures facing middle class Canadian families.

“The choice for Canadians is clear: the Liberals, with a track record of fiscal responsibility and a plan to make strategic investments in lasting economic legacies, or the Conservatives, who spent Canada into deficit before the recession and want to waste billions more on prisons, untendered stealth fighters, and tax breaks for the largest corporations,” said Deputy Liberal Leader Ralph Goodale, in a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Ottawa.

In speeches delivered in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal today, members of the Liberal Party’s economic team shared the Liberal plan to provide hope to middle class families by easing their economic pressures with strategic investments in health and family care, pensions, learning and jobs, and global leadership.

“Canadian families don’t feel any better off under the Conservatives, and are worried about making ends meet, whether it’s finding or paying for child care, looking after sick or aging loved ones, paying for their children’s post-secondary education, or saving enough to retire,” said Liberal Finance Critic Scott Brison in a speech to the Empire Club of Canada in Toronto.

The Liberal MPs explained how strategic investments in Canadian families can ease their economic pressures while leaving a lasting economic legacy for Canada – by providing the skills needed for the jobs of tomorrow, helping families to balance work and home care, keeping retirees out of poverty, and expanding our global trading relationships.  

“While the Liberal Party has a balanced and fiscally responsible economic plan, all Minister Flaherty could offer last month was a vitriolic attack on the opposition,” said Liberal Industry, Science and Technology Critic Marc Garneau, in a speech to the Montreal Chamber of Commerce. “Canada got through the worst of the recession thanks to the Chrétien-Martin legacy of balanced budgets, compared to the Conservatives’ legacy as the biggest-borrowing, biggest-spending government in Canadian history.”

The Liberal MPs said the Conservative government’s economic record is nothing to boast about, as they allowed spending to balloon by 18% between 2006 and 2008, plunging Canada back into deficit even before the recession began in the fall of 2008.  Since the start of the recession, Canada has lost 150,000 high-paying, full-time jobs and experienced nearly a 2% increase in unemployment.

“Canadians will be better off without the Conservatives’ constantly false fiscal projections, divisive politics, and obsessive control of information,” concluded Mr. Goodale. “Liberals will put the priorities of Canadian families first with strategic economic investments while reducing the Conservatives’ record deficit.”

Podium copies of the three speeches are available online:
Mr. Goodale (Ottawa) – http://lpc.ca/ecgoodale
Mr. Brison (Toronto) – http://lpc.ca/ecbrison
Mr. Garneau (Montreal) – http://lpc.ca/ecgarneau 

BACKGROUND

A comparison of Conservative and Liberal economic record and priorities
The Conservative economic record:

* Since January 2008, Canada has lost 150,000 high-paying full-time jobs, which were replaced by 300,000 part-time jobs.

* Canada’s unemployment rate is 1.8% higher today than it was during the last election. That’s 354,000 more unemployed Canadians.

* Canada’s deficit last year was $56 billion – higher than it’s ever been in the history of our country.

* Household debt is at record levels. Canadians have an average debt of $41,740 each – which is the worst among 20 advanced countries in the OECD – with household debt reaching a total of $1.41 trillion in December 2009.

* Canada’s trade deficit for the month of July set a new record at $2.7 billion.

* The $156 billion of new debt that the Conservatives plan to borrow between 2009 and 2014 will cost taxpayers $10 billion in interest payments each and every year for decades to come.

* The Conservatives put Canada into deficit even before the recession by increasing government spending by 18% in their first three budgets.

* Canada’s combined federal, provincial, territorial and municipal debt is 81.6% of GDP – only marginally better than the United States at 82.3% and worse than France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Conservative priorities for Canada:

* $20 billion in unaffordable tax breaks for the largest corporations over the next five years – up to $6 billion annually – when Canada’s corporate tax rates are already 25% lower than the United States and among the lowest in the G7.

* $16 billion for stealth fighters chosen by the Pentagon without a competitive bid.

* $10-13 billion for mega-prisons to lock up Stockwell Day’s “unreported criminals” when the crime rate is going down.

* $1.3 billion wasted on an ineffective and poorly-planned G8/G20 photo-op.

* Axing the mandatory long-form census – a move that will harm our ability to manage the economy, according to Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, and cost Canadians $30 million more for less useful information.

* A record $130 million spent on partisan government advertising.

The Liberal economic record from 1993-2003:

* A decade of balanced budgets.

* Explicit contingency reserves and extra prudence factors embedded in the budget-making process.

* The balanced use of surpluses that paid down debt, made tax rates competitive, and invested in vital economic and social priorities like the child tax benefit, public infrastructure, innovation, student assistance and health care.

* Slashing Canada’s debt-to-GDP ratio in half.

* Low and stable interest rates.

* A rational Canadian housing market.

* A secure public pension system.

* Sound banks and responsible financial system regulation.

Liberal priorities for Canada:

A balanced and credible fiscal approach to tackle the deficit while investing in Canada’s priorities that includes:

* Deficit reduction by committing to a deficit to GDP target of 1% within the first two years of a Liberal government and further decline every year thereafter until the budget is balanced;

* Fiscal prudence by restoring a reserve as a buffer to achieve targets;

* Spending restraint by finding targeted, sustainable savings in partnership with the public service and proposing new programs in the Liberal platform only if they can be financed without adding to the deficit; and

* Freezing corporate income tax rates to their current level until Canada can afford to lower them further.

A Family Care Plan to enhance care for our parents, our grandparents and our sick loved ones, and to help reduce the pressure on hundreds of thousands of struggling Canadian families.

A Global Networks Strategy to restore Canadian leadership in the world through:

* Global Network Agreements with China and India to collaborate in research and education, energy and sustainability, transportation, food security, health, immigration, culture and tourism; and

* Proactively engaging the United States in on our shared multilateral goals such as building a clean energy future;

A National Food Policy to promote healthy living, safe food, sustainable farm incomes, environmental farmland stewardship and international leadership.

The Rural Canada Matters strategy to boost rural communities with better access to Internet, doctors and nurses, emergency services, and postal service.

An environment and clean energy plan to create jobs by investing in renewable energy production, promoting energy efficiency and helping companies to develop and manufacture new clean energy products and materials.

A pension reform plan to protect the pension savings of Canadians whose companies have gone bankrupt, and to establish a voluntary Supplementary Canada Pension Plan to help more Canadians use our trusted national pension plan to save for their retirement.

A pan-Canadian learning strategy to build the best-educated, most highly-skilled workforce in the world.