By Alan Broadbent (Maytree Opinion, February 2010)
Canada’s federal government is expected to have a deficit of over $50 billion this year. The Ontario government deficit will be over $14 billion. Neither of these governments expects to balance their budget before 2015, and most experts think it will take much longer. Even Alberta and B.C. will have deficits of $4 and $2 billion respectively.

December 14, 2009: With David Pecaut’s passing, Toronto has not only lost a great civic leader, but Maytree has lost a great friend and partner. David was the pivotal figure in the establishment of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, which he built into a dynamic civic presence which brought together leaders from business, civil society, government, labour, and academia. Using David’s preferred method of establishing a common fact base, he worked with a variety of coalitions to create solutions to persistent poverty, immigrant access to the labour market, diversifying the leadership in the city, environmental degradation, and connecting our regional research capability.

(Maytree Opinion, January 2010)
On January 4 most Canadians went back to work, some albeit reluctantly. Not so our parliamentarians in Ottawa, who were given an extended prorogated break. Governments, regardless of which level or which party, are the servants of the people. We elect them, pay for them, work with them in the belief that they will go about the business of governing in an efficient, effective and accountable manner.