1w ago

Cabinet ministers told to find ‘ambitious’ savings by end of summer

www.theglobeandmail.com

Cabinet ministers asked to find ‘ambitious’ spending cuts as Carney government prepares first budget

Federal cabinet ministers are being asked to find ... ways to reduce program spending by 7.5 per cent in the fiscal year that begins April 1, 2026, followed by 10 per cent in savings the next year and 15 per cent in the 2028-29 fiscal year.

I'm getting 90s vibes. Government cutbacks, threats of separation, climate change. It's all here.

But there's a modern twist: we're talking about 3C change in 2100, there's a housing crisis, our media landscape is dominated by tech bros, and the US is lost in the culture wars.

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“You will be expected to bring forward ambitious savings proposals to spend less on the day-to-day running of government, and invest more in building a strong, united Canadian economy,” Mr. Champagne wrote in one of the letters.
So cuts to the public service and services to fund loans/giveaways to the private sector.
“Through this ambitious review each minister should examine the programs and activities in their portfolio to determine which are: meeting their objectives, are core to the federal mandate, and complement versus duplicate what is offered elsewhere by the federal government or by other levels of government,” it states.
Anyone who has been through a round of layoffs recognizes this language. All it's missing is a need to find "efficiencies". Carney is looking less and less like the genius economy understander I was told he was and more and more like a bog standard orthodox Friedmanite.
- That's what many of his left-leaning detractors have said. Unsurprisingly, the central banker is a dyed in the wool neoliberal who wants to trim government spending while shoveling money towards the private sector to grow the economy. Maybe wealth will finally trickle down this time. 😅
  
  The annoying thing is that for a lot of his voters it seems like his decisions have been surprising. I'm seeing a lot of, "trust the plan," sort of comments elsewhere like this is all leading to some bait-and-switch social democratic turn. I think the Liberal campaign didn't focus on his fiscal orthodoxy and a lot of people just projected whatever they wanted him to be onto him.
  
  Narrator: It won't.
  Narrator 3.5 years from now: It didn't.
- Carney is looking less and less like the genius economy understander I was told he was and more and more like ~~a bog standard orthodox Friedmanite.~~ politician
  
  I think that's excessively cynical. If the politicians we put in power tend to look the same, that's a little bit on us for only picking from two different parties for the entire history of the country. There are certainly alternative ideas about economics.
- There is no problem so bad it could not have been made worse with Polievre.
  
  We don't live in a two party system. If nothing else, we'd be better off with a much weaker Liberal minority.
The government in the 90s wasn't saying housing prices couldnt fall, which is the big difference I see. Now we have embraced the house of cards ponzi scheme built on cheap debt, we may as well start a Bitcoin reserve next.

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