Bank of Canada
Preamble
WHEREAS The Bank of Canada is wholly owned by the people of Canada. It was nationalized in 1938 and was used very successfully to fund infrastructure and social programs for the benefit of all Canadians. Unfortunately, since Canada adopted economist Milton Friedman`s theory of monetarism in 1974 this has not been the case.
WHEREAS by 1974, Canada`s accumulated federal debt since confederation was 18 billion. By 1997, after the government reduced its use of the Bank of Canada to carry public debt, it had risen 3000% to a high of 588 billion. In 1992 the Auditor General of Canada determined that only 37 billion of the debt was the principle, and the remaining 363 billion was compounded interest owed to private banks and investors. Today the net federal debt, which excludes intergovernmental debt, is 490 billion. Currently Canadians pay 31 billion approximately per year, or about 170 million a day, in debt servicing (interest charged on the debt).
WHEREAS Canadians have endured a steady decline in purchasing power and increasing debts as a result of the adoption of these policies.
Operative
BE IT RESOLVED that the Green Party adopt Monetary Policy that reinstates the Bank of Canada to a prominent position in the creation of currency and the regulation of credit in Canada using the full range of tools at its disposal rather than just the setting of interest rates. The Bank of Canada would actively regulate credit and currency in the best interests of economic life of the nation and its people and control and protect the external value of the national monetary unit and mitigate by its influence fluctuations in the general level of production, trade, prices, and employment so far as may be possible within the scope of monetary action and generally promotes the economic welfare of Canada for the benefit of its people.
Background
Code
Proposal Type
Submitter Name
Party Commentary
This motion, in calling for legislation that would ensure money borrowed by the government of Canada was through the Bank of Canada and interest free, would create a new policy. Also, the phrase regarding the borrowing practices of the provincial and territorial governments is beyond the traditional jurisdiction of the federal government.
Preamble
WHEREAS The Bank of Canada is wholly owned by the people of Canada. It was nationalized in 1938 and was used very successfully to fund infrastructure and social programs for the benefit of all Canadians. Unfortunately, since Canada adopted economist Milton Friedman`s theory of monetarism in 1974 this has not been the case.
WHEREAS by 1974, Canada`s accumulated federal debt since confederation was 18 billion. By 1997, after the government reduced its use of the Bank of Canada to carry public debt, it had risen 3000% to a high of 588 billion. In 1992 the Auditor General of Canada determined that only 37 billion of the debt was the principle, and the remaining 363 billion was compounded interest owed to private banks and investors. Today the net federal debt, which excludes intergovernmental debt, is 490 billion. Currently Canadians pay 31 billion approximately per year, or about 170 million a day, in debt servicing (interest charged on the debt).
WHEREAS Canadians have endured a steady decline in purchasing power and increasing debts as a result of the adoption of these policies.
Operative
BE IT RESOLVED that the Green Party adopt Monetary Policy that reinstates the Bank of Canada to a prominent position in the creation of currency and the regulation of credit in Canada using the full range of tools at its disposal rather than just the setting of interest rates. The Bank of Canada would actively regulate credit and currency in the best interests of economic life of the nation and its people and control and protect the external value of the national monetary unit and mitigate by its influence fluctuations in the general level of production, trade, prices, and employment so far as may be possible within the scope of monetary action and generally promotes the economic welfare of Canada for the benefit of its people.
Party Commentary
This motion, in calling for legislation that would ensure money borrowed by the government of Canada was through the Bank of Canada and interest free, would create a new policy. Also, the phrase regarding the borrowing practices of the provincial and territorial governments is beyond the traditional jurisdiction of the federal government.