Perfect timing for Harper and Flaherty

It seems that earlier this year, while the Con government was telling us that the economy was rosy and there was no chance for a deficit... ever, they were selling $14 billion in T-bills to offset the loss in revenue from their GST cuts.  Well, it also seems that if the government does not pay off those bills before the end of 2008, they will be classified as debt and add to the deficit that they are planning to run up.

This is the result of a blatant lie and deliberate deceit by a government that touts responsibility and transparency.

What a joke.  And the joke is on all Canadians... not just the ones who voted to put them back in.

So the responsible and transparent Con government is about to use the excuse of the world-wide financial crisis to cover up their incompetence by adding that $14 billion to their planned deficit.

Buried in reports from the Finance Department are these statements:

"With a budgetary surplus of $2.9 billion and a requirement of $23.2 billion from non-budgetary transactions, there was a financial requirement of $20.3 billion in the April to July 2008 period, compared to a financial source of $6.8 billion in the same period last year. This difference reflects the financial requirement associated with loans to major Crown corporations which were announced in Budget 2007, as well as higher refunds related to the 2007 tax year."

and

"The Government financed this financial requirement of $20.3 billion by increasing market debt by $14.2 billion and reducing cash balances by $6.1 billion. The increase in market debt was achieved largely through the issuance of treasury bills."

See: http://www.fin.gc.ca/FISCMON/2008-07e.html

We are truly saps and they are truly criminals.