Senior Fellow Stanley Clarson-Thies publishes "The Faith-Based Initiative: Cause of Contention and the Solution to an Impasse?" in Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Winter 2009 44:1, 70-85 in special issue: "Evangelical-Jewish Relations: Politics, Policy and Theology" with guest editor Nancy Isserman.

The National Post covers research by Deani Van Pelt, member of the research team for the Cardus Education and Culture project, challenging the myth that only traditionally wealthy parents choose private schools. Read the article here .

The Calgary Herald covers new forthcoming research from Cardus in the City of Calgary: Herald link The Centre City Plan, an ambitious vision for a revitalized downtown Calgary approved by city council in 2007, calls for higher-density housing, open spaces to savour and a robust commercial sector. But at least one organization wonders where is the city's soul in all this. Cardus, a public policy think-tank that studies "social architecture," brought together local business, government and faith leaders last week to renew its call for the inclusion of a worship space component in any downtown redevelopment. The group is hoping to raise $100,000 to conduct an inventory of existing downtown church capacity and study the relationship between faith groups and the collective values vital to a compassionate city. "Where else in a city like Calgary do you have places where blue collar meets white collar, where people from all walks of life interact on a regular basis but in churches?" said Michael Van Pelt, Cardus's president. "We need to take a serious look at the role of faith communities and integrate them into our city cores," he added. "It's not just a Calgary question, it's one that many cities are wrestling with." Van Pelt noted churches already play important social roles such as providing seniors care, the welcoming and integration of immigrants and fostering the arts. They also have large networks of volunteers which can be tapped if a natural disaster or civic emergency occurs. The Centre City Plan projects an influx of up to 40,000 more residents to downtown by 2035, one step in addressing urban sprawl. "A lot of people are going to be missing something in their lives if there aren't places to worship in these inner-city neighbourhoods," said Van Pelt. Calgary's downtown is home to the cathedrals of local Roman Catholics and Anglicans. Storied places of worship such as First Baptist, Knox United and Grace Presbyterian churches rub their historic shoulders with construction cranes, corporate towers and upscale condos. Peter Menzies, a senior fellow with Cardus, said with sky-high downtown land values, worship spaces don't need to be traditional, free-standing buildings anymore. They can be housed in multi-use venues where two or three faith groups can share worship space. Menzies noted Calgary's downtown worship sites are almost exclusively Christian, not reflective of the city's increasing religious diversity. "We have to look at ways to make provisions for Muslim or Sikh worshippers in the future downtown core, not just in the suburbs," said Menzies. Ward 12 Ald. Ric McIver said civic and spiritual leaders need to strengthen communication lines. "I like the premise of this study. There's no reason you have to ignore the spiritual component of a downtown core even though we're a big, complex city," said McIver. More information on the Cardus project is available from bharskamp@cardus.ca.

We are living through the biggest financial calamity since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The credit crisis that began in the sub-prime mortgage market in the United States in the summer of 2007 gathered strength for more than 12 months and, by the fall of 2008, had spread to almost every area of global debt markets. More than US$720 billion of bad debt was written off the balance sheets of financial institutions around the world in 2008. Experts today predict that the total write-off of loans across the developed world could reach as much as US$3 trillion. Powerful financial institutions have been humbled and many have either collapsed or had to be rescued by taxpayers. As the conduits of credit were quickly constricted by financial institutions, consumers and businesses both large and small quickly felt the squeeze. The previously rosy prospects for the world's economies deteriorated at astonishing speed, in a matter of weeks, showing just how interconnected the global economy is. This freezing of credit affected every country in the world. The symptoms were obvious: troubled financial institutions, falling real estate prices and slowing consumption and investment. Consider this evidence: in 2008 a staggering US$30.1 trillion in market value was wiped off the global stock markets. Approximately US$7 trillion was taken off the U.S. market alone, the worst drop in the U.S. stock markets since 1937. The response of governments around the world is unprecedented: mammoth bailouts of financial institutions, nationalizing of corporations, aggressive reductions in interest rates and unequalled increases in money supply. The major concern we should have with all this government involvement is the massive budget deficits that have emerged. We should all know that rolling debt from the consumer to the government is not a long-term solution. The last thing we need is bigger and larger governments around the world. How did we get here? What is the root of the problem? In a nutshell we got to this point as a result of three decades of baby boomers, those of us born between 1946 and 1964, living far beyond our means. This privileged generation that began with so much promise is now embroiled in a financial crisis due largely to irresponsible and materialistic lifestyles, most of it purchased on a line of credit. Sure, boomers were assisted by financial institutions willing to lend money without proper underwriting standards. And, yes, the regulatory oversight was exceptionally poor. But in the end, who signed up for all this debt? Who bought the larger and larger homes despite declining family sizes? Who turned over the car leases every 24 to 36 months on cars they could not afford to purchase? Who took the cruises and bought vacation properties based upon future earnings and stock market returns that were unsustainable? Who used the little equity they did have in their homes as a source of funds to buy more and more consumer products of little or no lasting value? One statistic alone drives this point home: in the United States during the past ten years, each $100 growth in total debt was supported by only a $19 growth in GDP (the total value of goods and services produced)! So what next? We need to look this problem straight on and respond by reducing our debt levels and strengthening our own personal balance sheets. The problem is this will be painful for us as individuals and for our economy despite the fact it is the right way forward. By pain, I mean that industrial production will continue to fall, retail sales will be weak, consumer confidence will remain low and the value of our homes will not be going up any time soon. In the end we will be better off when we right-size the economy but, in the interim, we are in for some tough medicine. Advice for investors What does this tough medicine mean for those of us with investments such as mutual funds, pensions and RRSP accounts? Many investors are asking: How do we get asset values to go back up? How do we get out of the grip of this nasty bear market (when the value of stocks is decreasing) and back into the arms of a bull market (when stocks are increasing in value)? The bottom line is we have much work ahead of us before we see a substantive bull market. Bull markets do not materialize out of thin air and they do not have to appear automatically after a downward move in the markets. Powerful bull markets are the result of strong pro-growth economic policies, stable to declining tax rates, minimal government intervention, principled capitalism, vibrant and growing populations, innovations, protection of private property and access to capital from real savings. Prudent investors should be very concerned that many of these important elements of a strong and prosperous economy are not clearly evident. Restoring lost trust and confidence in our institutions also requires something else that is not clearly evident: the moral authority to inculcate in younger generations the necessary virtues such as hard work and delayed gratification. Will the younger generations in our postmodern culture willingly adopt such values when their model generation, the baby boomers, spent most of their lives shirking such values, only recognizing the need for them late in life? Without a strong ethical and moral base (which for Christians is rooted in the truth of God's Word), we will not have the necessary foundation upon which to build a strong and enduring economy for our children. Aging populations Besides the morals and ethics of the people in our economy, the age and productivity of the population are also crucial. Unfortunately, we are also facing an aging crisis as well. In fact, the severe problem of the world's aging population is one of the most significant and misunderstood challenges facing global capital markets over the next two decades. This problem is not restricted to rich western countries. Contrary to the uninformed consensus, countries such as China and India will be the most affected by the economic results of huge drops in the number of children per family. Thus it's a mistake to look to them for our long-term growth. Statistics can help explain the problem. Over the past three decades, the average number of children born per woman has dropped from more than four to fewer than 1.5 on average throughout the largest economies in the world. Given that the sustainable level is 2.1 children per woman, we will soon be losing from 30 to 50 percent of our population with each passing generation. In Europe the average number of children per woman is hovering around 1.3 and in Canada we are currently at 1.7. Philip Longman's book The Empty Cradle (Basic Books, 2004) explains these issues in greater detail. The fact that this change will not cause an absolute drop in the number of people in the world for another 30 years does not mean we can continue to ignore the impact this will begin to have on the world's economy. Russia and Japan are already experiencing more deaths than births and this can be seen in their dismal economic numbers. Over the next 30 years this death spiral will begin to hit country after country within the developed world. Yet many economists refer to the drop in family size as a wonderfully positive trend providing a "demographic dividend." They point to how families with fewer children consume more goods today and can leverage themselves up quite nicely on a double income. Because of the way economists tabulate our GDP, it appears we are better off in the short run if we reduce the number of children per family. The problem is that the baby boomers, products of large families themselves, have not only reduced family size, they have also dramatically increased consumption of goods and services. In short, the demographic dividend has been spent and we have a pile of debt to show for it! Why is this so serious? The global fall in fertility is creating a new world that few individuals, companies or nations are prepared for. We are unprepared because modern economies, including modern welfare states, are basically founded on the assumption of population growth and the human capital it creates. Our global financial system has become capitalized for prosperity and growth alone. It is not prepared for a shrinking working population! Who will service all the debt that has been created, and is now being created, by governments around the world? What price will the boomers' children pay for our assets as the boomers retire? Who will pay for the escalating medical bills? Instead of using credit to pay for winter vacations in Florida or cosmetic surgery, we will need to save up for these expenses the old-fashioned way or forgo them altogether. And what about all those underfunded private and public pension plans around the world after the 2008 financial markets carnage? Let's face it: they will stay underfunded until they renege on many of their current promises and redefine their future obligations in light of the new reality and not the reality that existed 20 years ago. The reality is we are facing years of slowing global GDP growth, higher taxes, increased government intervention and fewer young people who are so integral to a vibrant economy. Discipline and leadership Now that the panic button has been pushed it's time for leaders to take an honest look at the problems. We face unprecedented challenges around the globe as we try to bring stability in the midst of a world swimming in debt and unsustainable promises. All of us need to realize that growth in capital is a long-term process underpinned by discipline, hard work and self-sacrifice. Christians in particular should be part of the solution because we can provide the necessary spiritual anchors in a postmodern culture plagued by short-term thinking. We need true leaders who will balance the needs of this generation with future generations and build a strong economy rooted in such enduring biblical principles as honesty, hard work and generosity. Leadership means standing on fixed principles and never wavering from these principles. We need leaders with character, vision, integrity, courage and understanding. We need leaders with the power to articulate solutions and a strong sense of Providence because they see themselves as part of a higher purpose and meaning that transcends the temporal. If the Christian community cannot step up to the leadership plate, who will? In practical terms this means we are to invest for the future, spending only what we have and avoiding the awful trap of consumerism and materialism even if this means fewer 'things' in the days ahead. We must also be those who remember that God is sovereign. Despite all the challenges we face, Jesus the Christ is on the throne and He is moving history forward to its appointed end.

Cardus President Michael Van Pelt, along with Senior Fellow Jonathan Wellum, were cited in the March 11 Hamilton Spectator on the interrelationship of the loss of faith and financial collapse. Read the Spectator piece today .

A friend recalled recently how, at an event in support of a small liberal arts university in Canada, one of the speakers wondered just how practical a liberal arts education might be in this day and age. "It makes for good dinner conversation," piped up one of his counterparts, soliciting a few chuckles from around the room, most likely from those inclined to "hard" and "practical" pursuits such as accounting and engineering. This has long been a debate that successfully applied a lot of pressure on universities in the past generation or so to retool their undergraduate requirements to de-emphasize the humanities in favour of more "practical" pursuits. Those of us who find beauty in the "hard" pursuits, but believe that the ability of a liberal arts education to mould character, logic and reason is also vital to a society's architecture have watched, troubled, as this trend unfolded. We now have a champion in none other than Paul Volcker, chairman of the United States Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987. Speaking in Toronto earlier this month about the world's current economic crisis, he made it clear that there are elements beyond the numbers that, when the numbers people don't understand them, lead to trouble. "Finance doesn't work without some sense of trust and confidence and people meaning what they say," Volcker said, sounding ever so much like a philosopher and not the number-crunching hero credited with wrestling inflation to the ground in the 1980s. "There was so much opaqueness, so many complications and misunderstandings involved in very complex financial engineering by people who, in my opinion, did not know financial markets," Volcker said. "They knew mathematics. They thought financial markets obeyed mathematical laws. They have found out differently now." Markets, of course, are not solely about numbers nor are they comprised solely of mathematicians. Yes, many of the people who manage markets live their lives through the numbers and not through their grasp of philosophical understandings of emotion and belief. But even Adam Smith was careful to distinguish between acting in self interest, which he believed to be good, and greed, which he believed to always be bad. Theodore Malloch, chairman and CEO of the global strategy firm, Roosevelt Group, wrote recently in the American Spectator: "Those nations, peoples, and businesses that neglect the moral ecology of their own cultures, especially corporate cultures, and financial firms' cultures are most noteworthy, cannot enjoy the fruits of capitalism." The fact of the matter is that there are not enough, if any, people working in the world's financial and banking sectors who have the first idea where to begin the conversation on how to define the difference, as Smith put it, between acting in one's own self interest and acting through greed. There are some, such as fellow Cardus Senior Fellow and AIC Mutual Funds CEO Jonathan Wellum, who understand the moral and philosophical reasoning between economic and personal "short-termism" and long-term thinking and behaviour. But, let's face it, the humanities studies and the intellectual skills taught at modern liberal arts universities have been denigrated and downgraded for more than a generation now by people and cultures who see them as having no value other than to inspire "good dinner conversation." As a result, there is an enormous hole in the education of our business leaders -- one through which our economy has recently tumbled. Some of the exceptions such as Wellum--who in addition to his MBA from McMaster holds a Masters of Arts in theology from Trinity Seminary in Chicago --have training in the construction of both social and mathematical architecture. Volcker, notably, began his post secondary education with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton before adding an M. A. in political economy at Harvard. His is, in fact, the sort of education resume that would make people in today's business world wonder about its "practicality." Volcker's speech, as it appears online, was blunt to the point where he publicly expressed his disappointment in a "brilliant" grandson who was about to "waste his life" as a financial engineer. "He sent me a note: "Grandpa, don't blame it on us! We were just following the orders we were getting from our bosses." The only thing I could do was send him back an e-mail: "I will not accept the Nuremberg excuse." Hopefully, enough people reading this will begin to understand that a liberal arts education and philosophers, theologians and moral scholars are not superfluous to economies and markets. Quite the contrary: they are vital to it. Ray Pennings Is A Senior Fellow And Director Of Research For Cardus.

Spiritual Enterprise: Doing Virtuous Business by Theodore Roosevelt Malloch (Encounter Books, 2008), 300 pages, $22. Farmers know that there are no quick fixes. A failed crop is not re-grown by good intentions or wishful thinking. Nature has its rhythms and its painful inevitabilities. It's why farmers are prudent, hardworking, practical people. The soil keeps them honest. Farmers are extremely protective of their seed corn. Seed corn is their future; they need it for survival. No matter how hungry they get in the winter, if they eat their seed corn, they will surely starve by the next fall. When the seed corn is eaten, it marks the beginning of the end. American culture has eaten much of its spiritual seed corn. The crises on Wall Street and Main Street alike stem less from questionable lending policies and exotic derivatives, than the shift in perspective that made these decisions seem like a wise thing to do. The blame game has now begun. Congressional hearings have been launched and CNN adds nightly to its rogue gallery of those deemed most culpable. But this fiscal meltdown is a more widespread problem than many are willing to admit. Even the bailout simply moves the debt to a bigger credit card. We are systematically incapable of long-term thinking, and with it the choices and restraints that long-term investments demand. The attitude is, "Why do today what can be put off until tomorrow?" But 'tomorrow' has arrived in the financial sector. Soon it will arrive for under-funded pension funds, Social Security, and Medicare. Foreign countries, sovereign wealth funds, and petrol-authoritarians will someday stop their fiscal largess. And on that day we will realize how much of the spiritual seed corn is gone. No doubt, a cottage industry of books will soon emerge discussing the causes and cures of the Fiscal Crisis of 2008. But it is particularly heartening to read an author who understood what was at stake well before the crisis made headlines. Theodore Malloch, chairman and CEO of The Roosevelt Group and founder of the Spiritual Enterprise Institute, has written a timely and largely hopeful book about companies who incorporate spiritual capital into their wider corporate vision. Building on Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam's study of social capital, Malloch develops the concept of spiritual capital. Spiritual capital is the external moral resources stemming from religious belief that give work meaning beyond itself. It is the source for the 'why' beyond the 'what.' He defines it as "the fund of beliefs, examples, and commitments that are transmitted from generation to generation through a religious tradition, and which attach people to the transcendental source of human happiness." It appears that few on Wall Street measure companies by their store of spiritual capital. Few corporate leaders remember that Adam Smith himself warned that The Wealth of Nations is dependent upon The Theory of Moral Sentiments. But in pursuing wealth without morals, we have come to the place where we are in short supply of both. If business is the real test of the moral life, as Malloch alleges, then modern business has been tried and found wanting. Wealth has become an end rather than a means to other transcendent ends, and as such has become its own gravedigger. The argument of this book has emphasized the way in which human achievement arises from and depends upon resources that are not mentioned in the standard inventory of material goods. . . . [M]aterial wealth is not the sole or the principal input into wealth creation; if it were, then the process of wealth creation could never begin. The primary input is human freedom, and the store of trust, faith, and hope that enables people to work together to produce what they collectively need. The importance of nurturing spiritual capital within enterprises is compounded in a global marketplace. China, Malloch argues, cannot succeed in its aspiration for economic global hegemony based on private property and private investment. Spiritual capital will be required. Spiritual capital is the invisible seed corn of free market enterprise. It must be continually renewed. Malloch warns, "The spiritual capital built up by previous generations can be honored and invested by others who do not have the faith to renew it, though at some point it surely must be renewed. This renewal of spiritual capital in the business sphere and its specific enterprises is what the faith-guided company achieves." Capitalism thrives not because of a supposed relationship to Protestantism, but to its relation to this religious state of mind. Though set against the news of unprecedented bankruptcies, massive bailouts, and turmoil in the markets, Malloch's book is finally hopeful, for he provides ample examples of companies who are integrating spiritual capital into their organizational culture. A particularly telling story is that of Rumi Verjee, an Ismaili Muslim who came to England as a refugee from East Africa, but found success at Domino's Pizza, founded by the outspoken Catholic Tom Monaghan. Verjee explains, "Although you can get on by being ruthless, by thinking of nothing but your own profit, and by rejoicing in other's loss, this is not the way to true success. Compassion is as important in a businessman as in any other human being. It is important not only for others' sake but also for your own." Clearly, headlines skew reality. There are a host of bright lights, companies who routinely celebrate hard and soft virtues in the workplace. In fact, the dark clouds of scandal only serve to further illuminate their distinctiveness. There is a better way: economic enterprise suffused with spiritual capital that serves the welfare of everyone it touches. And so this book serves as a timely reminder of what capitalism demands and, when husbanded wisely, what it promises to each succeeding generation. The fiscal crisis of 2008 is a generational indictment, and with it comes the loss of America's financial moral authority. Its solution begins with taking seriously the message of this book.

The Catholic Register did a round-up of faith inspired think tanks and advocacy groups on Friday, including the Cardus submission on the federal government. Click here to read the article at the Catholic Register's news site (external link).

(Click here for the official Cardus press release on the 2009 Federal Budget) Jump to:Introduction A note on the charitable sector Analysis Conclusion Further Analysis ForthcomingIntroduction This is Cardus' analysis of the Government of Canada's Budget for fiscal year 2009-2010, released by the Hon. James M. Flaherty, Minister of Finance, on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009. This budget provides only a short-term solution for a long-term problem, leaving the fundamental questions facing Canada's economy unanswered. It would appear that the government is responding to the public's exaggerated expectations of what federal spending can fix. The need to address our over-reliance on credit, our demographic challenges, and to renew our social architecture has been basically left untouched. Canadians continue to borrow from the future to maintain the ways of the past. In keeping with our analysis of previous budgets, we do not address all matters raised in the federal budget. Our analysis takes place in the context of Cardus' mission to promote the renewal of Canada's social architecture. The task of government is neither minimalist (that is, only a narrow focus on essential duties such as security, safety and core government services) nor expansionist (where government is prepared to jump in and solve every problem for which there is a political advantage in addressing.) The state should always be limited in its scope. The state is not responsible for everything. The state is the guardian of the public good but should defer to other institutions of civil society which are often better placed to deal with particular issues. It needs to be acknowledged that this federal budget cannot be properly analyzed without acknowledging the unusual political and economic context in which it is given. There has been extensive public debate in recent months whether it is preferable for government to attempt to stimulate the economy through infrastructure spending or to attempt to stimulate the economy through tax measures. It is clear that regardless of what position one might take philosophically, the fact that most of Canada's trading partners have opted for a Keynesian type of stimulus package combined with the fact that all of the opposition parties in a minority parliament favour this approach limited the options available to the government. The recession we are presently facing is unprecedented in its global reach. In the developed world, an increasing number of people are living leveraged financial lives, placing higher demand and reliability on credit. Credit presumes optimism on future capacity to earn and pay back. When credit structures fail, as some high-profile American banks did during 2008, the domino effect is felt throughout the system. This budget is premised on presumptions of average GDP growth of 3.88 over the next 5 years, which will provide the means to repay the $85 billion of additional debt the government proposes to take on during that period. It is impossible to know the reliability of these predictions, however in looking longer-term, there are at least three factors which neither the public debate nor this budget directly address:Canada's demographic challenge. Our reproductive rate of 1.7 children per female, while comparable with many of our trading partners, falls short of the required 2.1 rate necessary to maintain the population. We are just a few years from the time when the annual retirement rate will exceed the rate of young people entering the workforce. Presumptions of growth in the economy must factor in the workforce demographic effect.The limits of measurements. Spending on casinos is not the same as spending on bridges or power plants, even though in short-term GDP measures, one cannot distinguish between them. The real value of the measures contained in this budget will be determined more by qualitative than quantitative factors. There is some debate about the speed in which this money needs to be spent, and whether prudent choices will be made about the most effective long-term return on this infrastructure investment.The effects of social confidence and support. Much of economic activity has to do with attitude and confidence as much as ability. In the recession of the early eighties, consumers and businesses were willing to take on loans at very high interest rates. In the current recession, there is concern about their willingness to borrow money at historic low rates. Given recent changes in historic social structures (mobility, family breakdown, "bowling alone" factors, less volunteerism, weakened civic institutions), the economic challenges will exacerbate many personal issues. Dealing with these demands is a function of the healthy involvement of many social institutions in society; however when they fail or lack capacity, the cost is one that is borne by society as a whole.Our economy is undergoing fundamental structural changes, most of which are beyond the power of government. The government's tasks are to ensure the resizing is orderly, and to provide stability for those impacted by these structural changes. The budget adopts a multi-faceted approach in its attempt to stimulate the economy. The key components include:Improving Access to Financing and Strengthening Canada's Financial System with $200 billion to improve access to financing for consumers and businesses;Action to Help Canadians and Stimulate Spending with $8.3 billion on various programs directed towards individuals directly affected by the economic downturn, and $20 billion of tax relief;Action to Stimulate Housing Construction with $7.8 billion to build social housing, encourage home renovations, provide low-cost loans to municipalities for housing related construction, and energy related incentives;Immediate Action to Build Infrastructure with $12 billion of new funding projects with a focus on projects that bolster Canada's long-run productive capacity;Action to Support Businesses and Communities with over $4 billion for a wide variety of sector-specific initiatives, including Forestry, Agriculture, and Automotive sectors.The budget proposes a $34 billion deficit for Canada's 09-10 fiscal year (April 1, 2009 - March 31, 2010) and a $30 billion deficit for the 2010-11 fiscal year. By a combination of time limits attached to various spending initiatives and the expectation of economic recovery increasing tax revenues, the government suggests that it will be once again be able to produce a balanced budget in 2013-14. The budget highlights the government's commitment to return to surplus by carefully managed spending, by reviewing departmental programs and corporate assets, and also by concentrating the bulk of the initiatives as time-limited "use it or lose it" programs.Charitable sector The economic importance of the non-profit sector is often overlooked. However with $112 billion per year of annual revenues employing 2.1 million Canadians, this sector makes up 8.6% of GDP and its economic health is of general significance. These numbers are somewhat misleading in that this data collection category includes universities, colleges and hospitals. (most of whom rely on revenues from charitable foundations for a portion of their revenues but receive the bulk of their revenues from government funded operating grants) However apart from this component, the charitable sector is an estimated 4% of GDP. There were various proposals submitted during the pre-budget consultation period recommending that the government include measures for this sector in its stimulus package. One of those submissions was from Cardus suggesting that charitable tax credit for individual donations in excess of $200 be increased from the present 29% to a proposed 42%. There were no measures in the budget relating to this sector.Analysis Rather than attempt to comprehensively summarize all of the budget measures, Cardus has reviewed the budget using the lens of three major questions:Is the overall budget a reflection of short-termism or longer-term economic thinking?Is there a broader view of infrastructure beyond physical infrastructure?Is the budget fair and equitable for Canadians across our diverse landscape?1. Is the overall budget a reflection of short-termism or longer-term economic thinking? This budget attempts to do both. With a $30 billion stimulus spending package (which when reflected as a percentage of GDP, is one of the smaller stimulus packages globally), the government has responded to international (G-20) pressure, political pressure, and a general belief that government spending will have beneficial outcomes. The expectation of the budget is that this stimulus package will assist the economy coming through this downturn, and in a few years time, will position Canada to continue on a road of steady growth. The budget emphasizes that "measures to support the economy must begin within the next 120 days to be most effective." While the stimulus reasons for this are understandable, it undermines the planning and considered choice of strategic projects (including building community support and fundraising for community centers, recreational facilities, etc.), and also will result in a less efficient competitive process. On the other hand, the proposed tax changes do represent a longer-term approach. By reducing the tax burden for individuals and families in Canada as well as for the business community, Canada's tax regime will become more competitive and provide us with comparative advantages with our trading partners. It must also be acknowledged that a considerable investment is proposed in the skills and training programs which do increase Canada's knowledge base, as well as in green technologies. Fundamental longer term issues such as Canada's demographic challenges, and measures that would strengthen and increase the capacity for institutions between government and the individual to thrive (such as increasing charitable tax credits), are conspicuous by their absence.2. Is there a broader view of infrastructure than just physical? The government has rightly focused on the development of the workforce in an attempt to build a "knowledge economy." A variety of measures are proposed including:Wage earner protection program for eligible workers;Strategic training and transition fund for workers who have been out of work for a longer period of time;A $2000 tax credit for workers who complete their apprenticeship program;Various initiatives with universities and research agencies to develop Canada's knowledge advantage.All of the proposed initiatives are commendable, but it should be noted that most of them focus on individual benefits. There should be more focus on developing capacity for community groups, labour groups, and industry associations - groups which are often closer to the front lines and able to provide niche services and programs. In short, these initiatives reflect an over-reliance on government, rather than sound strategies for Canada's social architecture.3. Is the budget fair and equitable for Canadians across our diverse landscape? Economic hard times produce pain and the government has taken significant steps in an attempt to ameliorate the suffering that many Canadians will experience. While recognizing that these will continue to be difficult times, the budget has numerous specifically-targeted tax measures, employment transition measures, and industry-specific funds which are intended to help those most affected. Targeting tax relief measures for those in lower and middle income brackets are also an appropriate response.Conclusion In the period leading up to the federal budget, there has been a disturbing public appetite expecting governments to solve problems that are beyond their capacity to solve. Many aspects of the present economic crisis are not related to government causes. The public has not come to grips with the global economic restructuring that is taking place. It is not just our environmental frameworks that require adjustment. Our social (Who cares for whom? Who is my neighbour?), family (Do I have kids? Does it matter what I pass on to them?) and moral frameworks require adjustments too. The moral dimensions of this crisis are illustrated by consumer greed, a willingness to live beyond our means and irresponsible risk-taking by business leaders. It is difficult and even unfair to criticize our political leaders for responding in limited ways to a crisis that has much deeper roots than politics or even economics. The challenges facing Canada and most of its trading partners are fundamentally about how we organize society and what we expect from life. This budget has bought us a few more years to think about these questions while we borrow from the future to maintain the ways of the past. The success of this budget will be determined by how well we all steward this opportunity.Further Analysis Forthcoming Cardus will be conducting a review of the various budget analyses that are released immediately following the budget. A special budget issue of our policy journal, Cardus Policy in Public will be published on-line by 8 a.m. EST on Thursday January 29, 2009. Please check the Cardus website at that time for this further analysis. (Click here for the official Cardus press release on the 2009 Federal Budget)