That only took forever...

According to the federal budget today we get to say goodbye to the smallest member of our currency family. I do not think I'm alone in saying that it's about time. When inflation has made it so that the value of the penny is less than its buying power, I think it's time to let it go.

On another note, the OAS age will be pushed up to 67 starting in 2023 and being phased in over 6  years. I heard someone on the radio today who was interviewed on the street call it a cash grab. I cannot say I agree. I believe it makes sense with how the Canadians are living longer. I have come to terms with the fact that I will likely be working until I am 70.

Budget Madness

So the Ontario 2012 budget is already at risk of being defeated the day after it was announced. PC leader Tim Hudak let everyone know that the PC party would be voting against it within a short time of it being announced and the NDP will likely have a hard time coming to terms with the pressure being put on the public sector unions. However, I still appreciate Andrea Horvath's response on CBC Radio One today where she stated that the NDP will take some time to figure out what is good about the budget and is opening the channel for dialogue with the people of Ontario. I also like how she mentioned that Ontario elected a minority government to have the parties work together. This is what should be happening in a situation where the political views of the people of Ontario are split, you work together with those you "live with" in order to achieve what's best for the province. I don't really see the PC party having that mentality, but maybe that's because they're aiming to be in power in order to do whatever they want while the Liberals didn't consult with the people because they're used to having a majority and being able to push through whatever they want. These mentalities from the Liberals and the PC party make me wish we had a minority NDP government as it seems they would be the most willing to cooperate. I look at the minority governments that occur regularly in Germany and I see a system of collaboration that truly works in the long-term interest of a people - for the most part - and does not aim solely at re-election.

On another note, what would happen if we had the opposition government create their own mini budgets before they knew what the governing party's budget contained and all were released to the public on the same day. I think we might see some interesting similarities between some of the parties approaches that might help to reduce the voting down of budgets for purely partisan reasons. It may also work to some extent in businesses and not for profit entities as both those proposing and those setting the budgets would have to come up with their ideas of a realistic approach before knowing the results. Hopefully that would serve to increase the amount of objectivity involved in the decision making process. However, this would require an intimate knowledge of the department setting the budget in order to avoid situations of underachieving and will still not work if one of the negotiating parties is unwilling to be honest. That's where flexible budgets and management by walking around step in to supplement.

A Level Headed Approach

Listening to Here and Now on CBC Radio One today and I was pleasantly surprised by the balanced responses offered by Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of OPSEU, in response to the budget speech by Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan where it was announced that the government would be freezing public employee wages for the next two years. Rather than being hostile and angry in the interview, Mr. Thomas was calm and said that he was disappointed with the approach the Ontario Liberals have taken while adding that he was not going to get too excited about it yet and admitted he still had to dissect the budget more thoroughly. I felt Mr. Thomas to be a breath of fresh air from some of the heated reactions we can hear from some of the other union leaders.

The entire interview can be found here: http://www.cbc.ca/hereandnowtoronto/episodes/2012/03/27/public-sector-unions-and-ontarios-budget/