You Don't Say... On the Federal Budget 2012

I'm not saying that the federal government alone is responsible for stimulating Canada's economy, but putting the majority of the burden on businesses is economic suicide. How are companies who are quick to outsource jobs and to make employees "part time" so as to not have to pay them benefits going to save our economy? They pay less corporate taxes every year and now the Conservatives are taking away regulations left, right and centre. This is the same formula that led banks in Europe and the US to collapse and begin this brutal recession in the first place. Greedy businesses' main motive is to increase their profit margin and many have a long history of hording our money, therefore the government should add regulations to make sure they play fairly and give back. Also, the government needs to still invest in targeted stimulus, like infrastructure projects, to create jobs and help people get out of the deep holes they have fallen into.

I'm not saying that I'm afraid of working hard my whole life, but raising the age that Old Age Security kicks in to 67 is unfair to the generation before me, mine and the generations that will come after me. My generation is the first in HISTORY that is expected to live shorter lives than our predecessors and now it will be the first in a long time expected to work till a later age than our parents. We are now basically expected to work until we die. Some people are lucky enough to have pensions that will hopefully kick in before 67, but there are people who don't and almost soley rely on Old Age Security once they finish working. And those people, after 40 + years of work, deserve to enjoy their last 20 or 30 years without having to bust their backs. Leave the work to the young and allow those who have paid their dues already to relax and enjoy retirement at a reasonable age.

I'm not saying that its fantastic to hear that the penny will be pulled from circulation, but my pocket will certainly be glad about this news. The penny is practically worthless and it's value is much lower than the cost to produce it. The only possible downside, besides losing part of Canada's history, is that I can predict right now that most stores will adjust their prices in an upward direction so that the price for single goods will end in a '5' or '0'. This could end up costing us a few bucks each year.

I'm not saying that the budget will mean complete environmental devastation, but it does pave the way for more pipelines and less money for the environmental agencies and the ministry of the environment. The government is counting on a ton of money from Canadian exports and a large chunk of that is expected to come from tar sands oil. That spells doom for the air and land in Alberta around the sands and raises the spectre of a catastrophic leak somewhere along the pipeline. And now the ministry and agencies that would normally sound alarm bells about oil projects have been neutered so they can't tell Stephen Harper how his war on the environment is almost as bad as Mao and Hitler's against dissidents and intellectuals.