Jobless Folks, Working Moms, and More Left Out of Canada’s Budget
Facing economic trouble ahead, Conservatives offer bouquet of tax breaks for the wealthy
Wasn’t it always the student who kept asking for extensions on homework who always wound up turning in the poorest quality work? Finance Minister Joe Oliver tabled the 2015 federal budget on Tuesday, using some “creative” accounting to scratch out a small surplus. But despite taking a two-month extension, everyone from mainstream economists to First Nations to the YWCA to unions and ordinary Canadians are giving Mr. Oliver a failing grade on his first federal budget.
Packed with tax breaks for wealthy Canadians, and back-loaded with promises that won’t pay out until four or five years from now, Tuesday’s budget is entirely an election document and little more. Nothing new or unexpected, and perhaps this is why Mr. Oliver’s first budget, in returning to balance, is so disappointing.
It’s a missed opportunity.
Mr. Oliver’s balance comes after six consecutive slash-and-burn deficit budgets, $14 billion every year in cuts from the services Canadians rely on from their government. These are cuts to the CBC, to policing, to veterans, to oil spill response, to healthcare, to food and rail safety, and the list goes on.
Meanwhile, Canada’s economic outlook is anything but rosy. The price of oil is forecast to remain low, while the Conservatives continue to bet the farm on raw oil exports. Unemployment is on the rise, job quality is the lowest in a generation, and pay inequality is increasing. The governor of the Bank of Canada recently referred to the effect of the oil price slump on our economy as “atrocious.” Almost three-quarters of children under five have no access to affordable, quality childcare. Eleven million Canadian workers have no access to a workplace pension, and we’ve lost 400,000 manufacturing jobs since Mr. Harper was elected.
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