Firstly, its an efficient means to create jobs (graduate students earn $20-25,000 before their 4-5,000 tuition payments). These are relatively cheap jobs that build expertise in many areas and in 5 years time, the economy will be thirsting for these yong and qualified people.

Secondly, the work they do has all sorts of impact, both long and short term. They are essentially pre-vetted to be working on the best 15-20% of ideas since the funds are highly competitive. The impacts include new knowledge, new applications of that knowledge, new technologies, etc. Plus, they are highly educated in the process.

However, the current budget erodes this capacity, sends a direct and long term message to these people that this isn’t a good place to be and leaves the previous infrastructure investments under-utilised. Truly we are building bridges to nowhere.

second of all nothing you said makes it clear that the SH budget is not slower than what could have come after.

As for Paul’s remark about not electing environmentalists in October, at least one constituency did. Linda Duncan, winner in Edmonton Strathcona, has more environmentalist credentials than any Green Party candidate of which I am aware.

From my environmentalist perspective, we need to use federal, provincial, municipal, and personal funds to reduce our environmental footprint. Since part of that reduction is spending and consuming less, it’s a conundrum. Possibilities, some of which are reflected in the budget, include investments in energy efficiency (including replacing individual transit with mass transit), investments in sustainable energy sources, investments in recycling, taxes on excess consumption especially of high-resource use products (carbon taxes, for example), incentives to reduce urban sprawl, incentives for organic farming, individual spending on low-impact services – music (live or recorded) for example. I’m sure we can think of more ways to keep the economy moving without using up the planet.

You’re so tough…. where can I get tickets to that gun show? – Paul Wells, macleans.ca

I haven’t even got a book and I can already feel the royalties pouring in.

1) You have to trust that they will spend the bulk of the $$ (unlikely)

2) It doesn’t boost the EI payments or the GST rebate – the very quickest way to help the neediest AND put spending money directly into the economy.)

” I would not want to take this budget to Washington to show the Obama administration I aim to be a serious partner on environment and energy issues, which means that for the next little while I wouldn’t want to be Jim Prentice.”

Ulm, when did we start including US administrations in our budget approval process? And when did they actually care?

Its not like Canda is going to be three eyed fish in Lake Michigan to wave at Obama from the chicago river when he goes home.

No big complaint, but imagine writing that and replacing it with thewords Bush or McCain administration and see how little sense that makes.

Your comment on the research grants….well it never is enough is it? Probably an appropriate thing for the federal government to do, taking care of equiment and capital issues. Shouldnt this free up money somewher else at those institutions? doesnt it make it easier to attract good researchers when you have state of the art labs and the researchers tend to bring the dolalrs with them?

Research is a complicated process, and money gets raised from anyone of a number of a sources. When I get called for $$ from the university it can go to research grants, capital projects, bursaries or just general operating funds. Universities still need to do a better job tapping their alumni base as well as shaking down taxpayers for money. My bigger complain is there really isnt a strategy for this, how else can you judge the plan, any plan from anyone…..but that just raises the question of whether or not the Federal government can really play at deep level in this.

This raises issues like induistrial policy, ties to commercialization, military research, big science vs small. I am happy you have thingslike the Perimeter institute, a private creation but maybe thats where it comes from.

Can you imagine the federal government on its own creating that, first off there would have been a debate about its location, the Bloc would have complained that it wasnt in Chicoutami and the NDP would have had to answer to CUPE about the inclusion of Israeli researchers. I admire your committment to this topic but I would focus more on getting a strategy in place and agreement on goals and objectives of science and research policy before i complained about lack of dollars in a specific area….we still dont know what we do the money even if we had it.

“…these guys see a clean environment as a hassle.”

I’m surprised this hasn’t gotten more play in the media or in the various interviews I’ve seen with Liberals, or more specifically, John McCallum (I’m almost positive he has cloned himself to attain maximum media coverage). I understand the Liberals wanting to back away from being seen as environmental crusaders, but the failure of this budget to recognize the short-term and long-term economic importance of “green” infrastructure and technology is appalling, especially in contrast to what we are hearing south of the border. I’m hoping that if Ignatieff does require amendments, this will at least be partially addressed.

One could conceivably take issue with your second point, that “A new budget may or may not be better, but it would certainly be slower.”

There has been much made this afternoon and tonight, that much of the actual expenditure directed at infrastructure is highly conditioned (e.g., municipal matching) and as such may not flow before late this year or early next.

Conceivably, a new budget, could actually get the money out the door faster, seemingly a more significant marker for a stimulus than the delivery of the budget paper.

I don’t play chess, so I can’t really comment, but seemingly the Libs now have the Tories over the same barrel on which Dion’s backside was repeatedly whupped last year, i.e. the “placate us or fall” barrel. The minority parliament momentum has just swung 180 degrees. Doesn’t chess work like that? A pawn stumbles, and the board changes. Still, it’ll only work for a short time, since the Liberals surely don’t want another election right now.

I can’t help thinking Harper has made a big mistake by going into coalition, albeit of the heavily armed Cretan type, with the Liberals. His party will be taunted with flip-flopping unto the 7th generation. They’re looking more and more like a bunch of unpredictable amateurs, and I can’t recall when Canadians ever handed the reins to . . . unpredictable amateurs.

I promise I’ll keep the Hey ! Hey ! Ho ! Ho ! buried in the closet. That would be overkill for some of the boys on these blogs. Especially the Ottawa brigade these days.