Federal government begins fiscal year in the red
Harper calls federal byelections on same day deficit was reported
Paul Vieira and Juliet O'Neill, Canwest News Service
Published: Saturday, July 26, 2008OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper is sending voters in three ridings to the polls in early September amid renewed speculation about a fall election and reports that the federal government was in deficit for the first part of the year -- a rare departure from the billion-dollar surpluses that have been the norm.
Harper announced the Sept. 8 by-election dates for the ridings -- two in Quebec and one in Ontario -- without further comment on Friday.
But the parties see the by-elections as an opportunity to take their potential general election campaign themes -- leadership, environment, the economy and crime -- for a test run ahead of a federal election that Liberal leader Stephane Dion said Friday could come "maybe the fall, maybe the winter."
Earlier this week he'd noted there was a "bubbling appetite" for a federal election.
Dion has already put his Green Shift carbon tax proposal out as a central Liberal policy platform, holding town halls across the country to try to persuade Canadians that personal and business tax cuts his party has promised would buffer a proposed carbon tax aimed at reducing use of fossil fuels by industry and consumers.
"This election will be determinate not only for the next four years but will give a path for the next 40 years," Dion said in a telephone interview with the Montreal Gazette.
Dion asserted Friday that voters in the southern Ontario riding of Guelph and the Montreal-area ridings of Westmount-Ville Marie and St-Lambert will use the opportunity to send Harper "a strong message that they don't like the way he is running the country."
Conservatives say that since two of the ridings -- Guelph and Westmount-Ville Marie -- were held by the Liberals, the contest is about Dion's leadership, which the Tories have attacked as weak since Dion succeeded Paul Martin in late 2006. St-Lambert was held by the Bloc Quebecois.
Meanwhile, the Finance Department disclosed in its monthly fiscal monitor on Friday that Ottawa had recorded a $500-million deficit for the first two months of the 2008 fiscal year -- a stunning contrast to the $2.8-billion surplus it posted for the same period a year ago.
The department attributed the results to a drop in revenue from corporate taxes and the GST, and a seven-per-cent increase in spending.
"The results of the first two months of the fiscal year are not indicative of the outcome for the year as a whole," the Finance Department said in a statement accompanying the results.
Analysts also warned against making too much from two months of financial results. Nevertheless, it was suggested that the double-digit drop in corporate tax proceeds -- a major engine of federal revenue growth in recent years -- might ring some alarm bells in Ottawa.
"This year's budget did call for a narrowing of the surplus and some deterioration in the budget numbers was to be expected. But it does seem to be coming a bit earlier in the year than expected," said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.
ONLINE
ANSWER OUR POLL QUESTION:
Do you think the federal government has had a history of hiding its surpluses?
Go to vancouversun.com
No comments:
Post a Comment