Clearly, you are doing your part!

I don’t play many games etc but just wanted to say congrats on finishing it!

Also, cool subjects material!

Phew, I was thinking the same. I have no idea what you are trying to say.

Cheers.

I like how much of it is “save on office space.” In other words, let’s embrace cost savings inherent in remote work and let the office space get used by a company or for housing or anything that’s not sitting and taking zoom meetings.

Pretty easy win, despite Ford’s complaints.

It’s not like we’d have rail experts on the public payroll just sitting around.

And one of the mandates is to reduce consultancies (in large part because there’s been a lucrative pipeline of folks going through the public service, retiring, and then acting as consultants at a much inflated wage.)

Are all consultancies unnecessary? Absolutely not! But have all of them been necessary? Again, ask anyone who has worked in any sort of governmental agency and they’ll laugh as they regale you. (I still don’t know wether to laugh or cry at the guy who earned hundreds of thousands with the recommendation of “you should use this basic microsoft product.”)

Maybe re-read what you reaponded to?

It’s pretty nonsensical to claim that because you’re providing a public good you can’t do so more effectively.

Not at all surprised to hear that! (The book is sitting on my shelf, unread and judging me.)

That’s bold!

Again, that’s a fine and valid critique of the budget.

The fundamental flaw is equating corporate efficiency with public effectiveness…

This position however, does not seem valid when the budget is putting in more than it removes from actual public services, 51 billion v 13.

Sure, you can dislike the military spending.

That doesn’t mean the budget isn’t investing more in the public than it is withdrawing.

They’re cutting 13 billion. 51 billion (over 10 years) is going to local infrastucture; housing, roads, health and sanitation facilities.

Yes, military got more (~82 billion) and I don’t love that. Though, one part I do love is that a chunk of that military is also dual use, so climate emergencies like wildfires, floods etc.

Applying this profit extraction model to public service

Getting back to 2019 spending levels over a few years is hardly hollowing out the government.

And what that freed up money is doing is investing in stuff that makes those services work better.

For example in healthcare, which is hanging on by a thread, I think a few billion are going to building and renovating hospitals and investing in a new medical school. Those all make the services more efficient and sustainable in the long run.

Edit: My goodness, the cuts are something like 13 billion out of a 500 billion budget.

:)

Nothing says serious like: “We’ll just get the billionaires to pay for it!”

“and if they leave?”

“We don’t need them!”

Lol.

Cheers kid.

I remain unconvinced that cuts for austerity purposes are ultimately beneficial, raise taxes on the ultra wealthy instead

never said they would be the sole solution lol.

Okay, so if we’re admitting your first plan of tax the wealthy is a little myopic here, which tax breaks are you considering removing? And how will this stop those businesses from instead, setting up shop in a lower tax, lower regulation, larger single market like Americas?

I’d rather not be kissing his ass at all.

How many people should lose their jobs because of your sense of pride? Just curious.

Google won’t leave Canada if we enforce our laws because there are millions of Canadians and they would still make criminal amounts of money.

Read what I wrote about the digital services tax. The concern was not that Google would leave.

And this is why it’s so hard to take centrists seriously

He just descends into mindless sloganning again. Everything I’ve said can be backed up, whereas your thoughts aren’t even consistent in this single thread!

Yeah, I really wonder if it’ll be a whipped vote. Part of me wonders if that’s why whats-his-name crossed the floor. If they let it be a free vote, then anyone can abstain as they see fit.

Probably have to wait and see some polling on the budget but from casual conversations/reactions, it seems pretty rocking.

Honestly, I wonder how much of that last election loss was just we hated that guy so much. If I remember correctly, there was a yawning chasm between “approval for the Conservative party” and “approval for Poilievre.”

But, there’s so much in this budget for almost everyone that last month aside, I’d still happily put Carney out there blasting Conservatives for wasting Canadians time etc. But we’ll see how it all plays out!

To each their own.

Edit: removed personal details.

If you know anyone who works in government or a quasi governmental agency, they will tell you horror stories of colleagues who couldn’t be removed but couldn’t be arsed to do anything over the bare minimum (like being sober, showing up and handling at least one file a day.)

There has to be something in between the nihilistic conservative “burn it all down, no more bureaucracy!” and the opposite “every government employee is sacred!” I think a slow reduction through attrition and buyouts seems pretty reasonable and gives enough time to actually find efficiencies and innovations.

removing the carbon cap saying that investments in several sectors would reduce the emissions anyway. A lot of wishful thinking on the budget text, or on the worst case mental gymnastics malice.

A lot of this is through keeping and raising a carbon tax. That makes companies find the most efficient ways to reduce their footprints, rather than the government mandating it for each group. This is the approach favoured by most serious economists and think groups about reducing emissions quickly.

without details what kind of investment they are putting money in

You can look at the “nation building” projects, which include a massive wind farm (green as hell) and a nuclear plant (fairly clean, significantly better than say, oil or gas.)

Good riddance they are a plague. Make them pay their taxes before they leave.

Ummm, did you forget you propsed they would be the solution to our budget woes? Or are you not old enough to pay taxes and don’t realize we do those on an annual basis? (Putting aside the fact that most billionaires don’t earn it on taxed wages but more that they own unsold stock.)

We are paying more, but guess what bowing down to trump has left us where exactly?

One of the best tarrif rates in the world?

Fucking nationalize shit if they play that game.

Dafuq? You’re saying nationalize google?

Jesus though, this is why it can be so hard to take progressives seriously. This is just mindless slogan yelling with zero thought.