Canada's Latest Prosperity Budget
There we have it, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty brought down the latest budget and it's a very nice one at that, offering a bon-bon-box of modest goodies all around. From free Medic-Alert bracelets to seriously ill children to meal write-offs for trucker; from investments in post-secondary education to enhanced health-care measures; from kindly-but-modest funds for aboriginal housing, to a nice little boost for farmers, this budget tried its darndest to recognize all those outspread hands.
In its own way it is an admirable bit of fiscal balancing; paying down the debt, encouragement of environmental priorities, mollifying the provinces through boosted equalization payments, the provision of funding for science and technology, additional monies for the working poor, and a national water strategy aimed at improving the quality of our fresh-water systems. Yet not everyone can be satisfied, ever, with anything.
Still, working families with children get a break. Business considers the budget more on he positive than the negative side. Canada's manufacturers and exporters see the budget as good news. There's a crackdown on companies who abuse tax havens. The government is meeting its commitment to debt reduction. Funds have been set aside to increase workforce skills and economic infrastructure. Even national defence and foreign aid get a bit of a boost.
You just can't please all the people all of the time. Give this government five stars for trying. Sneak in another star for the pretty good showing this budget produces; everyone deserves a treat in this chugging economy. Best of all, for the ruling Conservatives, they think they're singing all the way to the next election. Look, here's Premier Jean Charest chortling that he's got the Quebec election in his lap. What's good for him translates to great for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Why am I such a niggler? I think it's a good budget, and I applaud all those nice little initiatives. Don Martin points out in his column what a charge his French-speaking colleagues got out of the budget's title: "Aspire". Which, he pointed out, in French means to 'suck out', and wasn't Quebec doing a fine job of that up to now anyway? Here's Quebec with less than one-quarter of the Canadian population gifted anew with 30 cents of every new dollar toddled off to the provinces.
Almost half of the combined 'extras' in this year's equalization and social-transfer funds - 2.2 billion - is earmarked for Quebec, which already receives $2 billion more in federal funds annually that it contributes. Why is it not surprising that alone of the opposition leaders the Bloc's Gilles Duceppe announced he would support the budget, while Stephane Dion and Jack Layton slammed it and refused to support it; one for no good reason, the other for plenty if you're a NDPer and you're looking for reasons.
Mr. Duceppe claimed his party still has "work to do" to solve the "fiscal imbalance", since he obdurately continues that weary old Quebec whine-line that Quebec is undervalued and underfunded. He's made it abundantly clear his party isn't finished pushing for more money for Quebec, insisting the "fiscal imbalance" hasn't been settled at all, as claimed by a triumphant Flaherty, who claims to have delivered "a historic plan" with his budget, and so he may have, but that still won't satisfy all the provinces.
Least of all Quebec, still getting the lion's share, still groaning about the unfairness to Quebec. The Bloc Quebecois supported this budget because "it was good for Quebec", but alas, still not quite good enough.
In its own way it is an admirable bit of fiscal balancing; paying down the debt, encouragement of environmental priorities, mollifying the provinces through boosted equalization payments, the provision of funding for science and technology, additional monies for the working poor, and a national water strategy aimed at improving the quality of our fresh-water systems. Yet not everyone can be satisfied, ever, with anything.
Still, working families with children get a break. Business considers the budget more on he positive than the negative side. Canada's manufacturers and exporters see the budget as good news. There's a crackdown on companies who abuse tax havens. The government is meeting its commitment to debt reduction. Funds have been set aside to increase workforce skills and economic infrastructure. Even national defence and foreign aid get a bit of a boost.
You just can't please all the people all of the time. Give this government five stars for trying. Sneak in another star for the pretty good showing this budget produces; everyone deserves a treat in this chugging economy. Best of all, for the ruling Conservatives, they think they're singing all the way to the next election. Look, here's Premier Jean Charest chortling that he's got the Quebec election in his lap. What's good for him translates to great for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Why am I such a niggler? I think it's a good budget, and I applaud all those nice little initiatives. Don Martin points out in his column what a charge his French-speaking colleagues got out of the budget's title: "Aspire". Which, he pointed out, in French means to 'suck out', and wasn't Quebec doing a fine job of that up to now anyway? Here's Quebec with less than one-quarter of the Canadian population gifted anew with 30 cents of every new dollar toddled off to the provinces.
Almost half of the combined 'extras' in this year's equalization and social-transfer funds - 2.2 billion - is earmarked for Quebec, which already receives $2 billion more in federal funds annually that it contributes. Why is it not surprising that alone of the opposition leaders the Bloc's Gilles Duceppe announced he would support the budget, while Stephane Dion and Jack Layton slammed it and refused to support it; one for no good reason, the other for plenty if you're a NDPer and you're looking for reasons.
Mr. Duceppe claimed his party still has "work to do" to solve the "fiscal imbalance", since he obdurately continues that weary old Quebec whine-line that Quebec is undervalued and underfunded. He's made it abundantly clear his party isn't finished pushing for more money for Quebec, insisting the "fiscal imbalance" hasn't been settled at all, as claimed by a triumphant Flaherty, who claims to have delivered "a historic plan" with his budget, and so he may have, but that still won't satisfy all the provinces.
Least of all Quebec, still getting the lion's share, still groaning about the unfairness to Quebec. The Bloc Quebecois supported this budget because "it was good for Quebec", but alas, still not quite good enough.
Labels: Government of Canada
posted by Pieface | 12:11 PM
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