CAMPBELL CLARK
VICTORIA — Globe and Mail Update Published on Thursday, Sep. 25, 2008 3:38PM EDT Last updated on Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 8:49PM EDT
Stephen Harper says the Canadian economy is not great, but fine, and predicts the economic slowdown will last a year.
He said the world and especially the United States has seen a slowdown in economic growth and Canada has been affected, and probably will be for a while.
“My anticipation is this will last for some period of time, probably for another year,” he said. “…But I do want to point out the fundamentals of the Canadian economy, as opposed to other economies. Yes, we have seen a slowdown in Canada, but we have certainly not seen a recession.”
He said incomes and employment remain healthy, and inflation is “quite contained” compared to most western countries, and that while Canadian banks have taken charges, they are not teetering on the brink.
“This will continue to be a slow, and a tense, and a somewhat difficult period,” he said. “My own suspicion is that not all the shoes have necessarily dropped in financial markets, but on the other hand we do see the government of the United States and other with a plan to deal with those things.”
And as he has over the course of the election campaign, Mr. Harper argued that the economic uncertainty is a reason to vote for him – although he is now clearly asking for a majority government without saying the words.
He insists all the other opposition parties would raise taxes and run deficits or do what he called “stupid” things. He appeared to be referring to Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion's Green Shift proposal to cut income taxes but raise taxes on carbon fuels.
“If we start shutting down our oil industry, not to deal with a reasonable environmental program but because of extreme positions, then I think we could be in real serious problems very quickly,” Mr. Harper said.
“I also think we need a strong government with a strong mandate to manage us through this.”
In an earlier announcement, the Conservatives said they will increase penalties for companies that engage in price-fixing, and create a new administrative process so that competition authorities would have an easier way to pursue companies who abuse their dominant position in the market.
And, in an effort to capture the outrage of people who feel they are being ripped off at gas pumps, Mr. Harper announced that $5-million would be spent to fund mandatory inspections, and fines will be re raised to $5,000 for a first offence and $50,000 for a repeat offender.
And he also said the Conservative, if re-elected, would ban telephone companies from charging for unsolicited commercial text messages.
NDP Leader Jack Layton has already announced his own proposals for a gas-pump crackdown, and today called for a new government consumer protection minister. Mr. Harper said the difference between the two is that the Tories would take “targeted” steps and the New Democrats would create a “massive bureaucracy.”
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“We are proposing effective things to reach a clear goal,” Mr. Harper said.
Whether the proposed new measures will all have a significant effect remains to be seen, however.
Mr. Harper noted that Canada is the only member of the G8 group of countries that does not have a law prohibiting mass commercial emails known as spam – but of course, spam has hardly be stamped out.
Conservative minister Diane Ablonczy said in a conference call with reporters that the government is looking to contract with a private company to operate an email “freezer,” where Canadians could forward their spam to be reviewed, and when appropriate, investigated. She said police would investigate the complaints.
She said the law would apply to only spam that comes from Canada. While much of it originates in foreign countries, creating a legal regime here would allow Canada to take part in international spam-prosecution agreements.
The measures to inspect gas pumps to see if they are dishing out the amount of gas they say they are might also earn some cheers, although the Conservatives say it is unclear if that is a widespread problem now, because of a lack of measurement.
An Ottawa newspaper reported on some short-changing, and noted that Measurement Canada inspection found that at 30 per cent of stations, one pump would fail inspection, pumping 3 to 4 per cent less fuel than claimed at the pump's meter.
Mr. Harper's broader proposal to stiffen penalties for anti-competitive practices like price-fixing would apply to all companies, but it too, appears designed to appeal to the many who feel that gas companies are setting artificially high prices.
“These measures would apply to gas retailers who could be said to be in price-rigging circumstances,” said Industry Minister Jim Prentice. “Such claims are very difficult to prove and we are amending the legislation so they would be easier to prove.”
Maximum penalties for price-fixing and bid-rigging would rise to $25-million from $10 million, and to 14 years in jail from the current five years.
The Conservatives also said they would set up a new civil process at the Competition Tribunal, in addition to the existing penal process, that would allow investigators to seek “administrative monetary penalties” for companies that abuse their market dominance, but with a lower burden of evidence.
Week 3 of the campaign
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