The Finance Minister Bill Morneau has once again revealed the Government‘s commitment to sensible progressive economic policy from which there is additional room to continue to provide income support for both business and working people who have lost their jobs.The statement which is over 160 pp including charts and tables opens with a quick snapshot of the current situation.As we can see from the chart 2 below taken from the report real GDP growth in 2020 has been sharply negative and unemployment has risen to 10%. But without the 300 plus billion of deficit spending the results would have been significantly worse.The various programs of income support and support for business will begin to expire by September so the government will need to both reform and renew some of them depending on the circumstances we face with the pandemic and the economy and in the light of suggestions received about how to improve their effectiveness. Despite the usual complaints about deficit spending from fiscal conservatives and politicians who hold those views the debt to GDP ratio is very reasonable at 49 %.
Chart 1.5 also taken from the snapshot shows that Canada leads the way in significant income and liquidity support for the economy as a percentage of the GDP among G20 countries at 13.8 % of the GDP along with Germany.
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About haroldchorneyeconomist
I am Professor of political economy at Concordia university in Montréal, Québec, Canada. I received my B.A.Hons (econ.&poli sci) from the University of Manitoba. I also completed my M.A. degree in economics there. Went on to spend two years at the London School of Economics as a Ph.D. student in economics and then completed my Ph.D. in political economy at the University of Toronto. Was named a John W.Dafoe fellow, a CMHC fellow and a Canada Council fellow. I also was named a Woodrow Wilson fellow in 1968 after completing my first class honours undergraduate degree. Worked as an economist in the area of education, labour economics and as the senior economist with the Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation for the Government of Manitoba from 1972 to 1978. I also have worked as an economic consultant for MDT socio-economic consultants and have been consulted on urban planning, health policy, linguistic duality and public sector finance questions by the governments of Manitoba, Saskatchewan,the cities of Regina and Saskatoon, Ontario and the Federal government of Canada. I have also been consulted by senior leaders of the British Labour party, MPs from the Progressive Conservative party, the Liberal party and the New Democrats on economic policy questions. Members of the Government of France under the Presidency of Francois Mitterand discussed my work on public sector deficits. I have also run for elected office at the municipal level. I first began to write about quantitative easing as a useful policy option during the early 1980s.
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