Lee-Anne Goodman / The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - Two studies on tax-free savings accounts sound alarm bells about their long-term fiscal impact if the Conservative government keeps a 2011 campaign promise to allow people to park almost twice as much money in the popular savings vehicles.

Peter O'Neil / Vancouver Sun

OTTAWA — Prominent B.C. economist J. Rhys Kesselman is horrified by the Frankenstein’s monster that has evolved from a tax policy idea he advanced in 2001.

The tributes emerged mid-afternoon on February 10th, as the news that four artists had died in a horrific car accident that killed five people north of Regina.

Michelle Sereda’s was the first name to emerge, and the close-knit arts family of Regina began to mourn.  Michelle had been a long-time figure in the performance, theatre and movement arts community. The next name heard was Lacy Morin-Desjarlais, who was a young woman recently returned to her homeland, also working in theatre and dance. The afternoon waned as the sadness of many continued to rise.

The Harper government claims to be paragons of fiscal virtue. They have pledged to balance the federal budget this year, notwithstanding a slowing economy, and are likely set to announce details of  the balanced budget legislation promised in the 2013 Speech from the Throne. 

The promised legislation will disallow annual deficits in “normal economic times” (whatever they are) and “set concrete targets for returning to balance in the event of an economic crisis.”