Canada Bides Time

(Video: Global TV • Story: Globe & Mail)

After saying a recession is imminent, Stephen Harper’s team appears content to put off any financial stimulus until budget time

Canadians will have to wait until the next federal budget before Ottawa delivers what Prime Minister Stephen Harper said could be an “unprecedented” fiscal stimulus package - a delay economists say the country can ill afford.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office said yesterday the government is still trying to determine what would be appropriate and is looking at 2009 budget measures rather than action outside of that.

“There is a desire to get it right, and a fair bit of analysis and due diligence work needs to go on before one acts,” spokesman Kory Teneycke said. Budgets are usually delivered around February.

He said the stimulus under consideration is something beyond Conservative efforts to accelerate a $33-billion, seven-year infrastructure fund the Tories rolled out in the 2006 and 2007 budgets. “It’s fair to say we are looking at additional measures.” Read more here.