World's most expensive photo-op

[Wezil]

I see. They switched to a different accounting method that makes the price seem astronomically high compared to all other precedents but only get around to pointing this out after two weeks of public pounding?

Yeah right.

[KrazyHorse]

What sort of black ops is the Canadian government ACTUALLY funding with this money?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[Wezil]

I've heard subs in Lake Ontario.

Presumably on loan from the West Edmonton Mall.

[Asher]

All I can say is I'm retiring.

[Wezil]

I knew there had to be some reason you've been whoring yourself for the Conservatives these past few years.

[Dinner]

All I can say is I'm retiring.

Good. Give up the Presidency and let's have some new elections.

[notyoueither]

I see. They switched to a different accounting method that makes the price seem astronomically high compared to all other precedents but only get around to pointing this out after two weeks of public pounding?

Yeah right.

It was mentioned in one of the early reports about this by either the Globe and Mail, the Edmonton Journal, or the CBC.

[BlackCat]

I'm a bit curious - we had COP15 some six months ago and I'm pretty sure that while we spend a bunch of money on security, it wasn't near 5 BKR - anyone responsible for such a vaste would be quartered and drawn publicly (well, maybe not actually, but though publically). Has there been an explanation on what these vast amount has been/will be used on ?

[Solomwi]

What sort of black ops is the Canadian government ACTUALLY funding with this money?

Inquiring minds want to know.

A nefarious plot to replace hipsters' microbrews with Molson Ice.

[Wezil]

It was mentioned in one of the early reports about this by either the Globe and Mail, the Edmonton Journal, or the CBC.

You'd think the CPC would be getting that message out. Messaging is what they do best.

[Wezil]

Has there been an explanation on what these vast amount has been/will be used on ?

This government will be fighting Freedom of Information requests on that for years to come. Bet on it.

[BlackCat]

This government will be fighting Freedom of Information requests on that for years to come. Bet on it.

Well, I guess that you won't disagree much if we invade you if you keep on disagreeing on Hans Ø - then you will at least get a decent government

[Wezil]

Our Constitution calls for "Peace, order and good government".

I've been waiting my entire life to see it.

[Wezil]

The fake lake sounds cool especially the bar you canoe up too.

?

In a 10cm (4") deep "lake"?


I don't think so.

[notyoueither]

Our Constitution calls for "Peace, order and good government".

I've been waiting my entire life to see it.

Damn! This is likely going to hurt me a lot more than it hurts you.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/canada-the-teacher-as-uk-prepares-for-budget-blitzkrieg/article1595455/

Canada the teacher as U.K. prepares for budget blitzkrieg

Eric Reguly
Rome — Globe and Mail Update
Published on Monday, Jun. 07, 2010 7:11PM EDT
Last updated on Tuesday, Jun. 08, 2010 3:27PM EDT


Declaring that Britain’s finances are in dire shape, Prime Minister David Cameron is preparing Britons for a Canadian-style attack on the deficit before rising interest payments crowd out social programs or turn the country into another Greece.

The Canadian-inspired plan came after George Osborne, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, met Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in South Korea during Group of 20 talks on the weekend. In a Bloomberg TV interview, Mr. Osborne said: “If you look at countries that have successfully done this, like Canada in the 1990s, their whole approach was to take a much more fundamental view of government expenditure than a pro-rata cutting exercise.”

Details of Britain’s top-to-bottom spending review and clampdown may not be known until the new coalition government unveils an emergency budget on June 22, but are expected to include a variation on the “star chamber” system, also inspired by Canada, in which cabinet ministers will be forced to justify their budgets in front a panel of senior civil servants and ministers.

In a speech Monday at Open University in Milton-Keynes, England, Mr. Cameron said: “The overall scale of the problem is even worse than we thought. How we deal with these things will affect our economy, our society, indeed our whole way of life.”

Britain is expected to have a budget deficit equivalent to 11 per cent of gross domestic product this year, according to Deutsche Bank’s economists. That’s the worst among the Group of Seven industrialized countries and nearly as bad as Greece’s, which came close to a debt default about a month ago.

Mr. Cameron said unchecked government spending would result in annual interest payments of £70-billion ($107-billion) a year on the national debt, up from the current £42-billion. “But £70-billion means spending more on debt interest than we currently do on running schools in England, plus on combatting climate change, plus all that we spend on transport,” he said.

He said ignoring the ballooning deficit is unthinkable. “Greece stands as a warning of what happens to countries that lose their credibility,” he said.

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat government announced spending cuts of £6.2-billion shortly after it was elected a month ago. Since then, it has warned that far deeper reductions are to come as debt-choked governments across Europe roll out austerity programs to rein in outsized budget deficits, slow the euro’s deterioration and prevent sovereign bond yields from soaring.

On Monday, Germany presented plans to reduce public spending by at least €80-billion ($101-billion) over four years, the deepest cuts since the Second World War. No fewer than 15,000 state jobs are to be eliminated. “The last few months have shown, together with Greece and other euro states, how important it is to have solid finances,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a press conference Monday.

While the new British government received advice from Mr. Flaherty, it was Paul Martin, the Liberal government’s finance minister between 1993 and 2002, who is credited with setting the model deficit-elimination effort in the mid-1990s. In an interview Monday, he said he is not formally advising governments on how to cut their deficits without triggering social turmoil, but he admitted that he has had “numerous discussions with various European governments, all informally, and I have certainly talked to people in the U.K.”

In 1993, Canada’s budget deficit and debt-to-GDP ratios were the second worst among the G7 countries, after Italy’s, and the U.S. financial press was unfavourably comparing Canada to Mexico. In 1995, Mr. Martin set out a goal to halve the deficit to 3 per cent by 1998, with an unannounced goal of a zero deficit by 2000. By 1998, the deficit was eliminated and overall debt was dropping quickly, allowing Canada to get through the Asian crisis with little damage and go on to become one of the strongest Western economies.

While Mr. Martin said there is no “cookie-cutter” approach to deficit reduction, he stressed that any government that embarks on an aggressive fiscal repair job must make its goals and timelines absolutely clear, make sure it meets those goals and ensure the pain is evenly spread.

Above all, he said, the effort must be sold to the public as a sacrifice that will eventually produce positive results, such as freeing up funds for education that would otherwise have gone to debt payments.

“It’s all about confidence,” he said. “As long as your plan has credibility and there is an end to it, and you achieve your targets, it can work.”

Mr. Martin introduced the program spending review that would later become known as the star chamber process. The process gave ministers the right to appeal the budget cuts imposed on their departments on the condition that any extra spending in one department was made up by less spending in another. “Individual departmental targets were appealable, but the government’s bottom line was not,” he said.

In recent days, British newspapers and TV programs have examined the Canadian example. Not all have been complimentary. Some have noted that generally rising markets in the last half of the 1990s made the deficit reduction easier. The Daily Telegraph said the cuts damaged provinces: “As provincial governments saw their health grants slashed, thousands of nurses were sacked and hospital waiting times soared.”