#Budget2017

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I was really looking forward to the federal budget, I had big plans to look through it and be able to write a bit of praise, a bit of criticism, and everything between.

Instead ... I am left with not much to write about because there is very little that is actually happening in this budget!

First, the 2017 Canadian Federal Budget can be found in detail here, or summarized fact sheets can be found here.

Thus ... to be nitpicky, a few comments on the budget below:

Apparently, this budget is going to help the middle class (What is the middle class?) - at one point Morneau says:

We’re repairing nearly 50,000 social housing units, to make sure families have a safe and secure place to live.

We’ve lifted 18 long-term boil water advisories in First Nations communities, getting us closer to our ultimate goal of ensuring that every child in Canada has access to clean drinking water.

Ten years from now, our cities, towns, and northern and rural communities will be healthier and better connected.

Our air and water will be cleaner.

This is admirable, the lifting of 18 long-term boil water advisories is commendable! but my issue with this is that - in the first liberal budget, they gave a small amount of money to commission a study on housing affordability, to a degree I was expecting a follow-up to this in this budget, especially since the issue of housing has been dominating local media, especially in Vancouver and Toronto.

"To make sure families have a safe and secure place to live", is that except for families in Vancouver/Toronto? where I am sure we are going to need more than 50,000 repaired social housing units to house a "middle class" which is finding it harder and hard to afford basic shelter.

Okay, given my recent posts on shelter and real-estate, that little rant should have been expected, but there is one area in particular which really struck me, that most in the media seem to be praising.

That is the governments pick of 6 specific industries which it deems worthy to invest in, to further develop our comparative advantage and ability to produce and trade in these fields. While in theory, the process of the government picking "winners and losers" amongst industry can generate comparative advantage and assist an economy - but what happens if we get it wrong? In this case, the government is considering the following 6 industries:

1. Digital
2. Clean Technology
3. Agri-food
4. Advanced manufacturing
5. Bio-sciences
6. Clean Resources.

I mean ... if the politicians actually get things right, this could be good! And really, politicians with all their resources and information must be pretty good at picking winners and losers - just look at the Canadian Aerospace industry and bombardier.

Overall, this is a midterm budget and in the back of my mind, I had low expectations for it. 

At the same time, I kept telling myself that it was a midterm budget and because voters are short-sighted and because to our south we have some interesting politics happening. So perhaps the government will present some serious structural changes (few that they campaigned on, and which Canadians had been asking for) - after all, they have the time to recuperate before the next election if they turned out poorly! 

so maybe it was a well-played wait and see on the part of Morneau, or perhaps it will turn out to be a missed opportunity. 

What are your thoughts on this budget? Much ado about nothing? any parts you liked, didn't like, had hoped to see?