XPost: can.politics   
      
   He sold our General Motors shares.  No, really.  No different than an investor   
   shedding shares in a loser industry.   
   That's what they were doing behind the scenes after announcing a delayed budget   
   report . . . . looking to see what could be liquidated.   
      
   Isn't our Conservative government wonderfully adept and competent at handling   
   our tax dollars?   
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   Globe and Mail - April 10, 2015   
      
   Oliver mum on whether GM sale balanced federal budget   
      
      
   Finance Minister Joe Oliver is refusing to say whether his government's   
   promised return to a balanced budget is fully dependent on the one-time sale of   
   GM shares   
      
   Finance Minister Joe Oliver won't say how the sale of GM shares will help the   
   Conservative government post a pre-election surplus, but promises to lay out   
   the details with his April 21 budget.   
      
   For the second day in a row, Mr. Oliver was asked whether the stock sale   
   announced this week will make the difference between Ottawa being in the red or   
   in the black.   
      
   "We did not need to sell those shares to balance the budget.  We'll have all   
   the numbers in when I present the budget," Mr. Oliver said Friday in an   
   interview with CP24.   
      
   Mr. Oliver muddied the waters a day earlier by suggesting the government could   
   have used an accounting move to book the GM sales without actually selling   
   them.   
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   "We would have been able to take into account a prospective sale price even had   
   we not sold the stock when we did.  That's an accounting provision that was   
   permissible," Mr. Oliver told reporters on Thursday.   
      
   Melissa Lantsman, a spokeswoman for Mr. Oliver, insisted Friday that under   
   either of those two scenarios, the revenue gain would not be the difference of   
   whether Ottawa forecasts a surplus.   
      
   The Conservative government has made a return to balanced budgets a central   
   political promise.  This week, Mr. Oliver announced that he would be bringing   
   in balanced-budget legislation that would compel future governments to avoid   
   deficits unless they face a war, natural disaster or serious recession.   
      
   Mr. Oliver was asked several times Thursday whether the government could still   
   have projected a surplus without booking the sale of GM shares.   
      
   "I don't have numbers now, but we will divulge them in the future and you can   
   determine the amount," he said in French.  "It's nothing very complicated," he   
   added later.   
      
   The federal government sold its shares in General Motors to Goldman Sachs for   
   $35.61 (U.S.) each.  The shares were originally obtained as part of Ottawa's   
   contribution to the government bailout of GM during the global financial   
   crisis.   
      
   That sale would translate into a federal revenue gain of about $3.287-billion   
   in Canadian dollars.  However, some of that amount has already been recorded.   
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   The government had previously booked the value of the shares at $15.31 (U.S.),   
   meaning the fiscal gain this year would be the difference in share price.  It   
   would also depend on how the money is converted into Canadian funds.   
   A rough calculation would put the fiscal gain at about $1.9-billion in Canadian   
   dollars, the same amount Mr. Oliver projected as a surplus for 2015-16 with his   
   Nov. 12 fiscal   
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   update.   
      
   Another complicating factor is that Ottawa has also already booked $1.5-billion   
   for 2015-16 for asset sales generally and it is not clear how that will impact   
   Mr. Oliver's recording of the GM shares sale.   
      
   Peter DeVries, a former senior official at finance, said the accounting of   
   assets is a complicated issue and disputed Mr. Oliver's claim that an asset   
   sale could be recorded without actually taking place.  Mr. DeVries noted that   
   while he expects the budget will forecast a surplus for 2015-16, it won't be   
   known if that actually occurred until the fall of 2016 when the Public Accounts   
   are released.   
      
   "That will be well after the 2015 election [before] we'll be in a position to   
   know whether they made it or not," he said.   
      
   NDP MP Peggy Nash said she finds it "suspicious" that the government delayed   
   the budget until April and then waited until after April 1 – the start of the   
   fiscal year – to sell the GM shares.   
      
   "It's become clear that they're going to do whatever they need to do to have   
   the numbers reflect what they need for partisan purposes," she said.   
   "This is a government that is setting new lows in fiscal transparency."   
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