Gloria Kovach's love-hate relationship with deficits

Monday night at City Council, Guelph Conservative party candidate Gloria Kovach went on and on about how the city using deficit funding for capital investment is a bad thing and should be stopped. I just about choked on the hypocrisy as this came within days of her party admitting to a $517 million federal deficit in just 2 months, after more than a decade of Liberal governance and balanced budgets. For a party that preaches fiscal responsibility, they wouldn't know a balanced budget if it hit them square in the face.

We know that the Conservatives have been selling government assets that they will have to pay to use after, likely in a vain effort to mask their deficit. The Canadian Wheat Board hopper fleet has been sold, though I have yet to see any official announcement about it. The government has also sold at least $1.41 billion of government buildings to lease them back. And that's just what I know about. Before the GST was cut another percent at the beginning of the year, we were already posting huge monthly deficits. Last October, for example, the monthly deficit was $2.7 billion.

The GST cuts since the tories have come to office are costing the federal treasury on the order of $1 billion per month, money that could be used to begin to fix the country's estimated $123 billion infrastructure deficit, something Kovach, as a city councillor, should be keenly aware of. If she were serious about helping Guelph, her press releases would be demanding more infrastructure money for cities, rather than criticising others for making those needed demands.

If she isn't willing to stand up for Guelph's interests while on City Council, how can we expect her to in Ottawa?

As she said to the Mercury about Truscott's settlement, "The issue of funding is not a local issue and those questions are best directed to the PMO press office." So, Mr. Harper, what's Ms. Kovach's opinion today?

Posted at 07:22 on July 30, 2008

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OLS 2008 wrap-up | guelph politics | Jack Layton and Gloria Kovach pretend to have credibility on transit

Mark Bailey writes at Wed Jul 30 10:38:13 EDT 2008...

Hi David,

Unfortunately you are correct, and those asset sales you mention as well as the 4.5 billion dollar wireless spectrum 10 year lease auction will be used to hide the deficit spending that the Conservatives have reimposed upon this country.

The GST, originally implemented by a Conservative government, was originally met with partisan resistance by the Liberals. Once, in power the Liberals realized that a flat consumption tax would encourage investment and represent a fairer long term taxation system for most Canadian families (the GST didn't quite work for wealthy families who showed no income :) ). The GST, along with the fiscally prudent moves of the Chretien/Martin 95 budget, opened Canada to a long term economic boom that we are now just coming off of. It is too bad we have a federal government that is not willing to take historical lessons either from its own party or from the successes of Liberal rule. Cutting the GST 2 points may have been sound political populist strategy, but will contribute towards the perfect storm of ailments our economy faces.

Kovach, as you point out, shows little promise of speaking up to address this issue, and shows every indication of accepting the Conservative culture of 'muzzlement.'

BBS (www.bluebloggingsoapbox.com) writes at Wed Jul 30 11:01:48 EDT 2008...

March 2003 monthly fiscal deficit of $4.4 billion.

August 2003 monthly deficit of $822 million

October 2003 monthly deficit of $947 million

March 2004 monthly deficit of $1.1 billion

Those are just a couple of examples. More are available. Spin on.

Scott Tribe (scottdiatribe.gluemeat.com) writes at Wed Jul 30 11:12:35 EDT 2008...

Gee BBS.. talk about spin.. you're engaging in it yourself.

The Liberals weren't selling off billions of dollars of government assets to hide the fact their economic policies were ill-advised and wrong - which is what is happening with the Conservatives now. Mr. Flaherty didnt know how to manage a budget in Ontario and did the same thing here.. so it's no surprise he's in the process of doing the same thing now in his capacity as federal finance minister.

Sean S. (www.seaninsaskatchewan.wordpress.com) writes at Wed Jul 30 11:29:37 EDT 2008...

She is allowed to still sit on Council while running for Federal office? that seems odd.

anonymous writes at Wed Jul 30 12:33:48 EDT 2008...

First of all, she's right about the money for a damage settlement. Guelph residents often like to confuse levels of govenment and their jurisdiction, often taking matters to council that have nothing to do with local governance. Second of all, the Federal govenment isn't funding capital projects with deficit financing. What she is referring to is Guelph approving projects that cost millions like a new library city hall, waste management facility etc. that Guelph doesn't have the money to pay for. The federal government gut the GST and personal taxes bringing us close to deficit, (Its judged yearly, and we are in surplus again) I just hink your arguements against her should be accurate. Disagree with her ideology, but what she has said is in fact correct in both instances.

Calvin writes at Wed Jul 30 18:25:40 EDT 2008...

Just checked out Ms. Kovachs webpage, good for a laugh. I'm glad she took the time to attack Frank Valeriote, how very Conservative of her. She'd fit in well with Harper's "team" right down to the smarmy grin....too bad she won't get the chance.

Liberals take this one easily.

shoes writes at Mon Aug 4 22:02:35 EDT 2008...

Hi CDLU

Great responses

I cannot understand why this by-election is a race at all.

Clearly Frank V has the CV to end all CV's.

Gloria has a the CV that is all about Gloria

Tom has the CV of outsider wannabee, who has taken so many leaves of absence fron his faculty position that his colleagues barely regognize him

Nagy has a CV full of misrepresentation about the Green strength based on the 'straw man' in the provincial elecion (which was, in a word ,decisive for the LIBs)

And its about to get dirty because Frank V seems to be a quality candidate and the rest are pretenders who's only goals are personal agrandisement.