Please Upgrade your Flash Player

The challenge of our time

Globe and Mail Update - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 11:25 EST

A laid-off retail manager, a self-employed consultant, a young mother and a small businessman reflect on the recession as Finance Minister Jim Flaherty delivers the budget

More stories attached to this video

• Ignatieff to call for changes to budget  
• Communities eager to upgrade arenas  
• Harper spends big, but can he go back? 
• Betting on a recovery, with little room for bad news 
• Ottawa moves to open credit flows 
• Strings attached to infrastructure funds 
• Stimulus falls short for many women 
• EI changes fail to garner experts' praise 
• Budget offers a $70-billion credit kickstart 
• Cash and tax breaks for the carbon agenda 
• Ottawa pins recovery on home reno boom 
• Car dealers welcome $12-billion boost 
• Fate of budget, coalition in Ignatieff's hands 
• Text of Finance Minister Flaherty's budget speech 
• The Ceolins: We like it but wanted more 
• What previous governments did 
• Flaherty's got deficit religion – but can he attain fiscal salvation? 
• Ignatieff weighs budget response 
• Ignatieff puts Harper Tories ‘on probation' 
• The budget and you 
• Rob Carrick on the 2009 federal budget 
• Budget fails to quell criticisms of Prime Minister, poll suggests 

OTTAWA, TORONTO — The federal government is extending its reach into Canada's financial system in a bid to support banks and borrowers, making almost $70-billion in new credit available and planning new powers such as the ability to buy stakes in financial institutions should they need capital injections.

Read full article