Canadian banks got $114B 'bailout' during recession

[shockedcanadian]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/04/30/bank-bailout-ccpa.html


It says support for Canadian banks reached $114 billion at its peak. That works out to $3,400 for every man, woman and child in Canada, and also to seven per cent of Canada's gross domestic product in 2009.

The figure is also 10 times the size of the amount Canadian taxpayers spent to bail out the auto industry in 2009.

"At some point during the crisis, three of Canada’s banks — CIBC, BMO, and Scotiabank — were completely under water, with government support exceeding the market value of the company," Macdonald said. "Without government supports to fall back on, Canadian banks would have been in serious trouble."

[GOPonziconz]

1. Actually it was 275 billion. It's all over the net, check out the link below.

http://basicsnews.ca/2009/04/canada%E2%80%99s-bank-bailout-275-billion-and-counting%E2%80%A6/

[snagglepuss]

2. Wasn't Canada hailed for its tough banking regulations and haven't Canadian

banks consistently posted profits?

[Joe Shlabotnik]

3. There is much work to be done before the next election.

9 out of 10 people on the street did not know this. While the bailout is greater than I though (I was aware of the 2 initial bailouts totaling 76 billion), most people fell hook line and sinker for the notion that Canada's banking system was solid, robust, and admired throughout the world. Some Serious questions need to be asked.

Why didn't the official opposition (Liberal party) make this known? Did they not read the legislation, are we to believe that they were unaware? My guess is that they were equally complicit in protecting the banks, and could be equally blamed (and rightly so) in creating the banking industry friendly environment.

The Conservatives campaigned on the notion that our banking system and economy are strong, and that our banks did not need a bailout. When confronted with the CMHC asset buy-up, their brief explanation was that it was a preventative move. So what was then? The banks didn't need the money but took the generous offer, or the banks were in deep shit? You can't have it both ways.

As the article states "It would have been cheaper to buy every single share in these companies,": indeed, except that the Conservatives would never consider the thought (Gasp! thats something some Commie like Chavez would do!). In fact if the Conservatives were that concerned about Canada's debt, it would have been an opportune time to renegotiate its obligations. But they are not interested in long term sustainability let alone public ownership. They'd rather feed money to banks, and big oil, and pray that China doesn't have a recession while they're still in power causing oil prices to drop, and completely deflating Canada's already gutted cardboard economy.

Why did this major piece of news get such small mention when it happened. Is the press stupid, or complicit?

Will this be brought up during the next elections? Will this vanish from the news, and from the conversations of everyday Canadians?

Lastly when will Canadians stop drinking the Tim Hortens cool-aid and wake up to the fact that we've been lied to, sold out, ripped off and used since the the 1980's by condescending politicians, neo-liberal economists, and a neutered press thats in bed with them.

[shockedcanadian]

4. I am not going to lay blame on any single party...

As you suggest, the Liberal government (or NDP for that matter) did not place any heat on the minority Conservatives at the time. Ultimately, you cannot have the financial industry collapse, it would put us in a worse position, the question to me is not about the bailout itself, but the optics of the situation and the lack of transparency. Telling everyone how strong and great our system is; and it very well may be compared to others, but then refraining from disclosing the facts appears at the very least suspicious.

This quote is the most compelling to me:

"Despite Access to Information requests for the data, the Bank of Canada refuses to release it," the CCPA report states.

In a nation that I have argued lacks transparency in the intelligence/security apparatus, we are seeing the precise same attitude across other departments. The U.S provided detailed information regarding the bailout (according to the article) and it has hurt their reputation. Even Moody's espoused our system as the most stable in the world...

I am an admitted non-partisan person. I supported in spirit (I don't vote) Harper over the other leaders because I believed that the Conservatives would make the best party to lead us out of the world recession. This needs to begin and end with trust and transparency across ALL parties.

As for your opinion of the media, they can only report information that they themselves are given. I do not believe in such high level, across board conspiracies, as it is, media sells much better when reporting dirt and scandals so you can be sure if they were aware of this it would have been reported.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

5. You are correct in that the failure is all around.

I believe it is systemic. We have a had a failure of leadership since the 1980's in both the Conservatives (egregiously) and Liberal (more sublime). And I agree that the NDP failed by not speaking out about the bailout at the time also, because to do so would not have been politically expedient (ie further casting them as the dreaded socialists and weakening their drive towards the centre.)

In the past when great national challenges arose, Canada had the leadership to confront those tasks. Whether through linking the country by rail, and later by the Trans-Canada highway, being early players in nuclear energy and aviation or by confronting the fuel crisis in the 1970's, by creating Petro-Canada. They were bold, risky and visionary steps taken, and were not handouts to the banking industry that we are now beholden to. They were investments to our infrastructure and future generations, not a band-aid solution used to stabilize one bubble only to create a debt nightmare down the road.

Similarly there is great failure of Canadian citizens by being gullible, disinterested and self serving and not demanding both visionary and transparent leadership and also a vibrant antagonistic press. It is deeply disturbing that as you state, "Despite Access to Information requests for the data, the Bank of Canada refuses to release it,". However the Globe and Mail did run a small article about this a few years back, and alternative media did cover the story. The initial $76 billion was not a secret. The established media in this country decided on behalf of Canadians that it was either not important enough, or that Canadians wouldn't/shouldn't care.

As much as I like to skewer the Conservatives, it is true that there is enough blame to go around.