Liberals look to pension fund partnerships as infrastructure fix
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau says Wednesday's surprise announcement by the Bank of Canada to cut itsinterest rateis further proof the Conservatives are bad managers of the economy.
"It's not particularlyfiscally responsible to put all your eggsin the same basket, to pin all your hopes on oil prices remaining high and when they fall being forced to make it up as they go along," Trudeau repeatedafter emerging from caucus in London, Ont., on Wednesday.
Trudeau and his three-dozen Liberal MPsheard from municipal leaders and economic experts on Tuesday morningas the Bank of Canada cut its overnight lending rate by a quarter of a percentage point the first change in the key rate since September 2010.
"What manufacturers and municipalities need is a partner in Ottawa to collaborate with them to make sure that we are diversifying our economy in all sorts of different ways, so that when challenges come in one sector there are other sectors to build on and to growon, and that's the kind of strong leadership that Canada needs," Trudeau said.
Asked whether the government should abandon its plan to balance the budget given the current economic uncertainty, Trudeau would not say.
Economists say it makes little practical difference whether the government posts a small deficit or a small surplus.
Finance Minister Joe Oliver, who was at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, told Reuters that a decision by the country's central bank to cut interest rates had been clearly influenced by a decline in the price of oil.
Oliver said last week the budget would be delayed until at least April given "current market instability."
Those comments came after TD Economics updated its forecastto project a $2.3-billion deficit in 2015-16 followed by a $600-million deficit for 2016-17, rather than the$1.6-billion surplus the government had projected for 2015-16.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair said Wednesday's rate cut shows that the pressures on the economy are greater than the government is willing to admit.
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Liberals look to pension fund partnerships as infrastructure fix