Canada needs a coronavirus stimulus plan. Here's what it should look like. - Macleans.ca

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As the stock market crashes and oil prices plunge, experts agree fiscal stimulus is needed. But what should that look like?

Until a little over a week ago the biggest viral outbreak facing the world was COVID-19. Officials now face a new and just as unpredictable contagion — fear. The threat of that anxiety further roiling markets and tipping economies into recession becomes more apparent by the day. And Canada in particular looks deeply vulnerable to a painful downturn.

“There needs to be a full blown package for health care,” she says. “Don’t even worry about saying what it’s going to be for, just get billions of dollars to the provinces for health care, for testing equipment, building hospitals, whatever.” She says plans should also be made to convert schools across the country to quarantine zones, with an eye to the virus spreading more rapidly north from the U.S. “The U.S. is our hot zone,” she says.

Layer two should focus on loan guarantees and short-run financial assistance for industries directly affected by the virus, like airlines, transportation and logistics. “You want to make sure on the business side companies have access to borrowing and can make payroll to their employees,” he says. “I’d hope to see a package about that very soon.”

Another faster option, however, would be for the Canada Revenue Agency to adjust the schedule employers must follow in withholding income tax from peoples’ paycheques. By delaying the amount of taxes withheld in the short term “that would mean paycheques would grow in the short term, even though employees are getting paid the same.”

However because “sentiment could turn very quickly” in the months ahead, he cautions Morneau against locking the government into a stimulus program that could take months to unfold. “They have to fight against the desire to build in some big, long term spending program,” he says. “I do think this is a relatively short-lived event we’re dealing with.

 

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these idiots have been spending money WE don't have and now you're giving them permission to do it?! is there no end to this stupidity. gawd, again, ostrich's with heads in the sand... how could they not see this coming?!

Trudeau has spent the past few years piling on the backs of our children massive amounts of debt. He never saved for a rainy day. Well, now it's raining. He will now do the same. The worst and most fiscally irresponsible PM in the history of Canada.

Listen to everything the CPC_HQ suggests and do the EXACT opposite. Based on fordnation and jkenney's performance, doing the opposite of what they do will prove to be a resounding success.

Send us all cheques. That will stimulate us.

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