Flaherty's pricey budget flight irks critics

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty took to the skies to pitch the Conservative government's new plan for bringing spending under control. The opposition has taken exception to his use of a government jet to do so, accusing Flaherty of not practicing what he preaches.

CTV News Channel: RBC's Jeff Greenberg

An RBC wealth management expert says the average Canadian is a winner in this year's budget, because no new taxes have been announced leaving more money in the pockets of taxpayers.

Canada AM: Finance Minister Jim Flaherty

Canada is in good shape economically, so the finance minister predicts that with 'moderate' growth and a restraint on spending, the county will fight the deficit without tax hikes or service cuts.

CTV News Channel: Liberal response to budget

Pointing to the Tories' spending history, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff accuses the government of not being credible when it comes to innovation, job creation or the deficit.

Canada AM: Patricia Croft, RBC

The chief economist at RBC Global Asset Management is surprised by the resistance to the budget and says when it comes to finances Canada 'owns the podium.'

Canada AM: BNN's Michael Kane with reaction

The budget is out and the feds have closed significant loopholes that has Bay Street buzzing.

CTV National News: Lisa LaFlamme on the freeze

The federal government is looking to shift the balance of how workers in the public and private sectors earn a living by trimming almost $7 billion in federal operating costs and freezing government salaries.

CTV National News: Craig Oliver on the cuts

CTV's chief political correspondent says the Harper minority government may not be able to survive past next year's budget, as a series of severe cuts to government spending will likely be necessary.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, part one

Flaherty praises Canada's economic status in comparison to other industrialized nations. He says Canada is performing better economically than other G& nations, and it will continue to have the lowest debt to GDP ratio after the recession.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, part two

Flaherty outlines the details of the government's 2010 budget in the House of Commons.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, part three

Flaherty outlines the details of the government's 2010 budget in the House of Commons.

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Finance Minister Jim Flaherty speaks to a Chamber of Commerce luncheon in London, Ontario, on Friday, March 5, 2010, the day after presenting the new budget to Parliament. (Dave Chidley / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

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CTV.ca News

Date: Fri. Mar. 5 2010 10:25 PM ET

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is facing the ire of opposition critics who say the minister isn't leading by example, after it was revealed that he used a private jet to sell his belt-tightening budget Friday.

The day after he unveiled the government's new budget, the finance minister flew from Ottawa to London, Ont., on a Challenger jet so he could do media interviews at a Tim Horton's coffee shop.

The opposition says the flight cost taxpayers $9,000, compared to a commercial flight, which runs about $800.

Liberal MP David McGuinty said that Flaherty is asking that Canadians cut back while he travels on a private plane.

"He can't say he wants Canadians and the government and public services to be reined in, while he spends so flagrantly."

Flaherty's office told CTV Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife that the private flight was necessary because of scheduling. The office said that Flaherty would be returning to Ottawa on a commercial flight.

However, it costs another $9,000 just for the jet to return, Fife added.

Meanwhile, Flaherty used the stop to sell his budget as a good news document.

Responding to criticisms about Ottawa's massive deficits over two fiscal years, Flaherty said that large spending has been necessary to keep the Canadian economy relatively strong during a time of extraordinary instability.

"It's easy to forget where we were not too long ago. We had to run a deficit in order to help people in Canada during a recession that came from outside," Flaherty told a business crowd Friday in London, Ont.

"We're doing that, we'll finish that, and then we'll move back to (a) balanced budget -- that's what Conservatives do."

Over the next fiscal year, Ottawa is projected to spend $280.5 billion, which includes the money it will spend on debt charges. That's an increase of nearly $13 billion over the current fiscal year which ends March 31.

But Flaherty is confident that the government can eventually move towards a balanced budget as long as it is judicious in its long-term spending choices.

"Three years from now, our deficit will be cut by two-thirds," he said.

In addition, the finance minister said the government expects to see moderate economic growth that will help lift up the country's bottom line.

When he announced the budget in the House of Commons Thursday, Flaherty described it as a "very tough budget" that saw the government turn down "most" new requests for funding.

Still, Flaherty has maintained that Canada is in good shape compared to the U.S. and many European countries because spending was in the black leading up to last year's crisis.

"It's difficult to run deficits -- don't want to run deficits," Flaherty said.

"But we were faced with the reality that we were seeing a precipitous decline in the Canadian economy."

Among other measures introduced in the budget, Ottawa will close a series of tax loopholes related to stock options, which will put $270 million in the government's hands in 2010-2011.

The government will also impose wage freezes for MPs and senators, as well as departmental operating budgets. More savings will come through the military, which won't see any new funding increases after Canada pulls out of Afghanistan next year.

Dealing with debt

On Friday, Flaherty said the budget had also addressed any concerns about how Ottawa will manage the country's debt, by plotting out how it would balance the budget over time.

This is another area where Canada is currently faring better than the U.S., he said.

However, a plan to freeze salaries for the public service has raised some concern ahead of a new collective bargaining agreement for some 145,000 workers.

Stockwell Day, who is president of the Treasury Board, said that civil servants will simply be asked to "manage" over the next three or four years without a raise.

"We think we'll be able to deliver our programs, like unemployment insurance," Day told CTV's Power Play on Friday afternoon.

Still, under the Conservatives, the public service has grown by about 11 per cent, and there is some worry that the unions representing the workers could push back against the government's spending restraint.

Day said that the managers could use "innovative" ways to manage the cutbacks. He also hinted that the government may not replace the roughly 13,000 positions which are vacated through attrition in the public service each year.

Comments are now closed for this story

Tori
said

Put user fees back into the hospitals. $5.00 per visit. Will cut back on unnecessary use for starters. Will give the hospitals a much needed boost to their budgets. Will make a person with a cold think twice before going to the hospital. They could just as easily go out and purchase a few dollars worth of cold meds.Put a working welfare practice in place. Would save money by allowing people to hold down part time jobs to subsidize their welfare.Make people pay for false police calls. Fake alarms and fake reports. They are wasting our taxpayer money when police are called when not needed.Quit paying out sorry money. Because a 100 years ago someone did something to a person, tribe, village, province etc is no reason why we have to pay through the nose now. The people it effected are not even alive it is their children or grand children we are paying to. Stop it!! Have all politicians travel economy unless they are a MP who can stipulate why they must travel first class. Business class should do nicely.Cut down on MP,MLA, Premier travel. Teleconfrence will cover most of what is required. Video conference will cover others. There is no need to waste all this money not to mention the green house gasses that will be saved by less running around.Get rid of the cars. No need for MPs to have chauffered cars. Drive yourself to work we all do. Take the bus even better. You might think you are more important but you are costing our country millions with your frills and extras that we work hard for you to have.Ok, so those are a few of my spending cuts...

Dean in Abbotsford
said

@Martin. I simply stated that regardless of what the government does or doesn't do with taxes, it shouldn't spend more than what we take in. It is up to us, the voters, to tell them to stop wasting money on special interest groups and re-election follies. If they only spend what is taken in, we would not have a deficit. Ideally, the gov't should in fact spend less than it takes in so we could pay down the existing deficit. It is irrelevant whether they raise or lower taxes. Stop spending more than there is! Also, don't be fooled by the term balanced budget. In their terms, this only means they have spent what they said they would. It has no bearing on whether they collected enough to cover their spending. Simple enough for you?

Rob'd Bycons
said

WOW, the CONS are out on the Conservative Television Network today. Canada has never seen such fiscal incompetence in it's history. From no recession by Harper to a surplus turned into a deficit by Flattery. God help us all. By the way, when is LYIN STEVEN going to get summoned for the Cadman attempted bribe???

Tori
said

I would have supported a 1% raise in GST to enable us to deal with the debt quicker.I wish they would have announced the end of the gun registry. That costs us so much money every year.I think Banks should have been forced to cut interest rates on credit cards by 2%. To allow people to pay off their debt quicker.Canada post should be given a 5 year freeze on postal rates.PetroCan and gas companies should have been frozen at 1.00 per litre of gas. Lets face it, these companies get huge returns every year. A freeze on them would not hurt anyone. The CEO etc will still get hefty bonuses and we will have a few more bucks in our pockets so we can continue to purchase items required in our homes.Tougher rules on what immigrants are handed when they enter this country. There are way too many freebees. Welfare, free housing, education, clothing allowance, cleaning supply allowance and the list goes on and on. They get most of it handed to them for an entire year. They should be allowed to come here only with enough money to sustain them for the year.Too much spending in prisions. Those guys have better TV and strerios than most of us do at our houses. Let them live with what they have for a few years.Tighten the spending of all MLAs. As we have seen in NS there are a lot of fraudulent claims against the crown by the MLAs. All of their spending should be audited. And if improper spending and poor judgement has occurred then all of it has to be paid back.

Chris in Ontariariari-Oh!
said

I agree with Jim McB as we are not in the same position as European countries and there are those that continue to use some European countries as model's for us to aspire to.The size and diversity of our country make's it expensive and not environmentally friendly to deliver good's and service's,yet we are expected to achieve environmental target's comparable to European countries.It's like comparing apple's to orange's,Dion expected Canada to meet target's that were achievable in Sweden.That's totally insane as Sweden is much smaller and rely's on nuclear as it's main source of energy.The liberal's expected to see great sum's of money to go out in this budget toward's green energy even though million's of dollar's go out each year to Sustainable Development Canada to fund green energy project's.There has been billion's that have gone out to fund green energy project's and companies with green technology yet some of the technology is not being utilized because of fear of political backlash.The liberal's have little to add to this commentary as their provincial cousin(environment critic's brother)Dalton McGuinty chose to invest $7billion dollar's of Ontario taxpayer's money with a South Korean company rather than invest in homegrown technology.Billion's of dollar's of taxpayer's money both federal and provincial have gone into growing a Canadian green energy industry yet we buy from overseas.The hypocrisy of the liberal party isn't just a federal thing as it seem's to know no boundries as this truly is a prime example.

Wendy
said

@Don in toon town 26 billion is what the government has lost in revenue since the GST was cut.

don in toon town
said

Wendy, Wendy, Wendy, they say if they raise the GST 1% it would put another 6 billion in the cofurs, so if you raise the GST 2% as some people would like that would mean 6 6=12 BILLION dollars not 26 billion. Maybe discuss your math with your so called book savvy wise leader Iggy.

Carl AB
said

Totally agree with the comment about the negative impact of the GST cut, which, at least in part, has led us to such a bad financial situation. Only rich people (certainly including PM and FM) were celebrating the 2% GST cut, for most of us working people who are trying to make ends meet, income tax cut makes much more sense. Clearly this government does things only based on political calculation instead of economical consideration. The GST cut helped them get elected, which is far more important than anyhting else. Now, they are not going to admit that is a mistake and revive it to 7%.

Amy
said

It's too bad the Prorogy Conservatives didn't use a little of their 2 month vacation to work on a budget that would actually do something about the deficit & create jobs for the people.

Tom
said

Cross your fingers elimination deficit budget, cons plan needs lots of luck. This is our country we should have a real plan. So far they havn't been credible on anything. First they told us there would be no deficit, then 28 billion, now 56 billion. According to their cross your fingers plan so far, the next deficit will be 100 billion, then 200 billion. If zero turned to 28, then 56 It makes sense it will keep going because their not really proposing anything new. The liberals just have to sit back & wait for Harper's house to fall.

JSL
said

The best Prime Minister in generations. It's a fact.No, I'm not a PC party member. Harper, I've never been proud of this country's government. You've changed that.

Richard in Ontario
said

Once again for those posters who don't happen to bright enough to understand the proroguing of parliament this last time. There was an additional three weeks of the HOC not sitting. This after the regular Chistmas break, plus the break for the Olympics, which by the way was agreed to by all parties. Since the House doesn't sit on Fridays at any time, this was a grand total of 12 additional days not three months as some mistakenly repeat. 12 days less of LIb/NDP rhetoric on stupid matters such as the detainee issue. I'll take Steven Harper and Jim Flaherty's budget any day over the "we're not sure what we would do different" way Iggy is operating.

Westerner
said

Interesting - The Government is freezing wages BUT the "Unions" get 2%-4% wage increase every time they negotiate. This includes Hospitals, Teachers - AUPE!! Student Loans are high because they are paying for "Teachers Wages and building costs" the cost of books and Labs has rizen modestly as compared to wages & cost of living increases - look at a janitors wage in College as compared to the private sector!!! Greed at all levels is where it got us today and the skipping out on loans(student and personnel), defaulting mortages (granted credit beyond what the person could actually pay), charge cards maxed out in alot of cases because people don't know how to live within their means or BUDGET - THAT IS HOW COME WE ARE IN THE SHAPE WE ARE IN TODAY! Everyone is spending foolishly or is greedy for themselves. Take a look at the 30% wage hike give to MP's of Alberta and they ONLY took 5% rollback - GIVE ME A BREAK - I never got a 30% raise. Sign me Fed up with MP's Greed!!!!

Mary
said

@Marg MM Your not looking at the facts, the anti democratic proroguing of parliament & all the broken promises of Harper. I've seen you complain about ad scam, there were no wrong doings, just creative accounting. We now pay 100 million per month interest on the deficit this government has created. You can honestly tell me that the 2 cents you saved of the GST was worth paying far more now on interest now. Bankruptcies were up 28.4 % last year, even with record low interest rates. The tough of crime bills are fail policies in the US that their getting rid of, they don't cut the crime rate the cost the tax payer is billions. Cutting down the liberals is childish, ignorant thinking. Only 16 billion of the 56 billion deficit was stimulus, reports say the stimulus helped pull Canada out of the recession. The liberals had to force Harper to do this & the liberals only agreed to spending 28 billion, not the 56 Harper has thrown away. It's a fact no other government has ever put Canada this far in debt. You know what the sad thing is? Harper & his number one got in front of the cameras & told Canadians, there isn't going to be a recession. CTV put the facts in a comix yesterday so even thick headed cons could understand everything that happened.

Martin
said

@Dean in Abbottsford: What is irrational about simple math? You are focussing (like many others) on the spending and not the income. The Cons chose to cut $40B per year in corporate and GST taxes income, artificially creating a shortfall in income. It is like someone working two jobs to support their family then quitting one (i.e. reduced income), and then totally ignoring the decision to quit and saying that spending cuts are necessary solely because your family was living high on the hog anyway. I doubt many would do that to their family - most would have kept their second job to avoid such a situation. Can you follow the analogy with government? The Cons should not have cut the taxes and reduced the government income in the first place to put us in this predicament for their own political benefit from the tax cuts. Is that easier for you to understand?

Mary
said

Wages need to be cut in public services. I saw way too many over weight RCMP members standing around doing nothing in the last month & quit wasting my tax dollars on war.

Dean in Abbotsford
said

Thanks Mahanna Ali. @ Martin, you couldn't be more wrong there buddy. Deficits occur when the gov't spends more than it takes in. Try going to economics before you make an irrational statement like that. Besides, gov'ts only spend more than they take in because we keep telling them to with all of our socialistic ideals and special interest groups. How about we mandate that any level of gov't should be required by law to only spend what they bring in. If not, they get kicked out.

Warren AB
said

I've got an idea, let's drop taxes to half of what we pay, now if you pay 80K in taxes that gives you 40k to put back into the economy, schools, your house and support the economy. I also believe that 154 million to Haiti and other forign debt should be halted, how much are we going to send to Chile? We can't save them all at the expense of the Canadian people, think how much these funds could help Canadians. I am a conservative supporter, but there is no reason why nobody in Canada should not be able to go to college, university etc. If things don't change and the middle class don't stop supporting Canada, then we are going nowhere fast.

lc
said

Hey jAy, after last years meltdown even radical right republicans are fleeing deregulation and trickle down Reaganomics.Try to stay current!

MARG MM
said

As usual, Liberal supporters going on and on about the GST cuts. Jean Chretien promised in an election campaign to get rid of the GST, we all know how that turned out. Another broken promise from the Liberals!!!At least the Conservatives aren't raising our taxes and ofloading health care & education costs to the provinces. This seems a pretty good budget, but there is NO satisfying the Liberals, their only aim is to regain power at any cost. If their numbers were better they would defeat the Government, however as we have heard they will run and hide and make sure the budget is passed. If Michael Ignatieff ever had any credibility, it is now all gone, as much as he doesn't like the budget, he does not have the guts to let the people decide. If the Liberals thought that prorogation was bad, I think "cutting and running" from the budget is much worse. Well, since he hasn't come up with any alternatives, I guess he has no other choice, as he has to save HIMSELF. As to Jack Layton, well, the NDP are always against everything, and the Bloc are only for Quebec.

Linda in Vancouver
said

Liberals seem to have short memories.Either that,or they are busy trying to cover their screw ups by re-writing history. Paul Martin decimated our health care system by slashing transfer payments,and down loading those costs onto the provinces.The Liberal idea of economic stimulus,was to give us a 64 cent dollar.Essentially a huge subsidy to business that was paid for by consumers,in the form of higher prices.Liberals,in case they have forgotten,were against both the FTA and the GST.The two policies most responsible for balancing the federal budget.While I concede that Paul Martin was finance minister when the budget came into surplus,I am not convinced he did this on his own,or even willingly.I say that because,as soon as he wanted to be PM of a majority government,he took his eye off the ball,ignored the debt,and went on a massive spending spree.Now that they are in opposition they have suddenly become interested in the national debt. While I'm not especially fond of PM Harper,and I am certainly not a "neo con", I left the Liberal party,and now support the Conservatives because they are the ONLY non socialist party on the ballot.And,the farther left we go,the deeper in debt we go.Case in point,debt/GDP ratio for Canada is about 31%. THe best of all G8 nations.For Quebec,the most left wing province in Canada,92%.The highest in the industrialized world. People always revolt against tax increases or service cuts.But,those same people run credit cards to the max,and think they are entitlied to a lot more than they earn. Debt is the evil in the closet.While we can do little about it in the middle of a global recession, we must pay it down ASAP.Only PM Harper has been consistent about this for a very long time.

simon in Montreal
said

On Friday, Flaherty said the budget had also addressed any concerns about how Ottawa will manage the country's debt, by plotting out how it would balance the budget over time. I WONDER what Flaherty means by "managing the debt" The DEBT will continue to rise between now and 2015 when he balances the budget and will continue to do so thereafter even if you have several years of balanced budgets. The Interest is the big concern. Does Flaherty know the difference between the Deficit and the Debt? Perhaps NO !!!!!

eddytoronto
said

The dollar may be stronger against the euro, but that status will soon show up in a drop in exports and a worsening of the balance of payments deficit. For every action there is a reaction. That will kill any possible economic recovery. Europe may export more, but they will face higher inflation. The only solution for the Canada ,The USA and Europe is tariffs on goods and services and until that happens neither will be able to compete. Needless to say, many problems and challenges lie ahead. We cannot expect any help from Harper or other Parties.The answer is vote out of office as many incumbents as possible in next election.If you do not there will never be a recovery and you will end up enslaved by Wall Street,Bat Street and banking in general.

Brad from Guelph
said

All you Libs and NDP supporters out there....please ask your leaders to submit their budget please. Then they can trigger an election and let us, the taxpayers decide. Until either leader grows a pair and puts a budget before Canadian taxpayers that drives the deficit down and saves jobs and gives out more money etc. etc. etc., I wish they would all just shut up so we don't have to see their smug faces all over the news....

mahanna ali
said

"dean in abbotsville"-being in opposition is like the olympic mens hockey silver medal award...it means your (party) LOST (the election)...to the better team...by the way, this is not a critique to your posting,in fact your point is good...

Doug # BC
said

It's not too bad.I don't think it addresses the debt problem,but I also think standing pat until this global debacle finishes defining itself is not a bad idea either.Serious spending cuts could easily start the ecnomy in another downward spiral.So could tax increases.Seriouls spending would obviously exacerbate the debt problem.I continue to believe,when you compare Canada's economic position to the situations in other nations,we are very close to being the nation most envied by other finance ministers.It has to be said though,that this recovery is far from certain.Flaherty is right not to go forward with dramatic action until we know more about how, when,or even if this recovery will continue. To "Charleana",and those others asking for more "free" money from the government,I can only say YOU ARE A BIG PART OF THE PROBLEM. If "Charlena" doesn't feel she should pay for her education,who does she think should pay?? The notion that working taxpayers with struggles of their own shoud pay is beyond belief. The word "loan" has an entirely different meaning than the word "gift".Pay off your student loans so the money will be there for the next generation of students.Forget the cars and "big ticket" items,and foget the trael until you re-pay the money you already borrowed.If you used it wisely,you should now be well enough educated to pay it back.If you spent it studying Egyptian pyramids,or ancient Greek philosophy,you wasted a lot of tax payer dollars. There is no "free".Just a debate over who pays for the services.And,that means ALL of us have to expect less in the way of "free".Get over the notion of "free",and earn what you consume.It is blatantly immoral to force your neighbour to pay for things you get,but he/she will never receive for themselves.

Stu from London
said

Funny, I don't remember Stephen Harper coming up with any budgetary alternative when he was Leader of the Opposition. In fact, I also remember him constantly slagging the government over decisions they made plenty of times with out proposing any alternative. I think Conservative supporters need to re-learn the purpose of the Opposition. They're there to criticize the government, just like Harper and the Canadian Alliance/Conservatives did when the Liberals were in power. How quickly you all forget this.

Martin
said

So what all you Con lovers are saying is that Harper/Flaherty et al have shown great management by guiding the country through the crises - by spending stimulus money which the opposition "forced" them to do (they get the credit, opposition is to "blame"). Typical Con "logic". Nevermind that the Cons cut $40B per year in tax revenue which set up the deficit in the first place. Talk about hysterical and lunatic.

Dave Victoria
said

Prof. Pye Chartt for PM.

eddytoronto
said

Others are envious of Germany's trade surplus, which is the second largest in the world after Saudi Arabia. That surplus is what is used by the rest of the eurozone nations to stay solvent. Definitely a 2-edged sword. Is it any wonder 67% of Germans have for 11 years wanted to dump the euro. Germany was forced to take on Greece and Italy knowing they did not qualify and Ireland was subsidized into the zone and should have never been allowed to join. Germany is being penalized holding down salaries to the point of stagnation and cost cutting, whereas the other players simply ran economically and fiscally wild. Germany will not join the culture of debt and cannot be expected to pay for others profligacy. Now that M3 in the US and Europe and M4 in England have been brought to almost zero levels any possibility of recovery is remote. The elitist bankers and Wall Street want monetization because it keeps the game going.. Just another trouble to be dealt with. If trouble ensues they will just call in the Fed to monetize the problem. Contagion never enters their minds. Foreign governments are well aware that the Fed is monetizing debt. There are 17 nations that are on the verge of bankruptcy. We do not know when the Brotherhood of Darkness will decide to bring this charade to an end, but it should be before the end of next year and perhaps lots sooner.

eddytoronto
said

Over the next four years in North America alot more $$ in commercial real estate loans will come due. About 50% are in deep trouble. From the top in 2007 their values are off 35% to 40%, so they only have 30% to 35% to go. Losses will be high . The fallout will affect all banks big and small. The reality of losses will be devastating. The only word to describe what will happen in real estate is "catastrophic"...That brings us to the deliberate destruction of Greece. Greece has been the leader in the global shipping industry and so has suffered as global trade has fallen. It has killed their balance of payments. The drop in tourism has also badly hit their economy. This is their part of the price to be paid for the phony war on terrorism. The elitists found Greece to be easy prey along with hedge funds and the likes of Goldman, Morgan and Citi. Their moves set up the initial stages for what will be the deflationary takedown of the world economy financially and economically. Greece's debt to GDP is estimated to be 120%, far worse than Russia's debt when they defaulted 12 years ago - some $430 billion. German banks hold a great deal of the debt for not only Greece, but for Spain, Ireland and Portugal, some $700 billion worth. As you know all of these countries are in trouble financially, as well as England, which will sell more than $300 billion in bonds this year, all of which will be monetized. It is no wonder British interest rates are 1% higher than German rates.

sandy NS
said

WI are better off than a lot of countries. I have friends that live in Greece.its a disaster there. The UK, another country that has no money. The US, a leader that spends and spends. I am pleased with this government.

Raymond2009
said

They talk about cutting cost and restraits but the tax office employees have been given the green light to do as much overtime as they want. What kind of cut costing method is that.I know its tax time but paying someone time and half for the same work when so many people are out of work. I`m sure they can hire some people to do the paper work, shuffle around stuff or whatever. why should these people get over time just because its the busy season. Heck of way to introduce cuts.

jAy
said

WOW! I expected to come over to this website from CBC's and hear some sanity! It appears not!OK, Economics 101. If taxes high, corporations wave 'bye bye', along with their jobs. If taxes low, corporations say 'WOO HOO!', and set up shop here. This brings jobs!! Let's face facts here folks, with the outsourcing problem we have, we need to provide incentives for big business to come here. That means lower taxes, but it means we are still getting SOME taxes, and will be employing more people.So, which would you rather have? a. Corporations in Canada, paying lower taxes than what they did 10 years ago, and employing a bunch of people, who are collecting a wage, and paying taxes on that wage.b. Corporations in Mexico, paying no taxes to Canada other than import tariffs, employing NOBODY here, and a whole lotta people here in Canada collecting welfare.Please choose either a. or b. It should be a simple choice.

Cold in Winnipeg
said

Charlena are you serious? There have been countless generations that have had to sacrifice, pass on TV's and travelling to pay the bills. Wrap your head around jumping on a boat, heading oversees and being dumped on a beach with bullets flying all around you? Seems like a higher price than forgoing the luxuries you feel entitled to. How about coming graduating University in the 90's, coming out to a $9/hr job, with student loans to pay. You need to take a look around you at how hard your peers and elders have worked and continue to work to pay off debts and head out on a nice vacation. Run your self centered comments by your self centered peers, or call your parents to whine. Grow up, pay YOUR bills, and have a nice life. And if it seems bad, think about getting on a boat and heading oversees to almost certain death, as others have done for your freedom. That's a real sacrifice.

al from calgary
said

To Wendy and all the other diehard Liberals: Apparently Harper didn't prorouge parliment long enough as Iggy has to give a bunch of his mps extra time off so they won't be in the house to vote on this budget. This sure goes a long way in showing me that the liberals are hard at work for all Canadians PS If this budget is so bad for Canada as Iggy says then they should force an election over it, because I'm sure that if its so bad Canadians wouldn't mind goint to the polls over it, so we can all hear how Iggy is going to add social programs, not cut anything since everything is so sacred to our values, and not raise taxes. I for one would like to see how he is going to do this.

Rick in NB, Ste Marie
said

Wade Ens: I was going to stay away from the rants today, but i couldn't get over yours. Could you please explain how Obama's National Health insurance Plan will put us in danger . This is a typical new reformed conservative rant, just throw anything out there and hope something sticks.

John J.
said

The Liberals, and their coalition threat, created this mess. The Liberals wanted more stimulus SPENDING or they would bring down the government. The Conservatives were forced into creating a large deficit.The Liberals love the fact that Canadians have short memories.

thetruth1028
said

Pretty good buget. Cutting jobs and pensions is just a short term knee jerk reaction that does nothing to address the problem. The real problem is that everything costs too much..from millions dollars to resurface a small strip of highway to the $8 you pay at the supermarket for 2 chicken breasts at regular price. The cost-wage ratio is out of wack. Don't believe me consider this: Remember decades before the 90's when a single working parent could support a family on one well paying wage?? Well those days are long gone now both parents have to work full time jobs and long hours just to get by.@Obama haters...Pretty sure the two wars started by republicans cost more than all of Obama's policies combined...and Health Care reform will actually reduce their deficits. America's problems and the recession have been caused by the fact that the gov't was not involved enough and now you are whining because they are expanding their role to help fix the mess and prevent it from happening again??...It was gov't regulations that saved our banks. To take your Republican indoctrination somewhere else..Canadians are too smart for that.

PBW
said

So, Jason, "This smells of avoiding short term economic pain for long term political gain", eh? What else do you expect from politicians? The same can be said of Mr. Layton's statements: his party will vote against the budget; of course they will, because their vote will not trigger an election. The Bloc say - as usual - "there is nothing in for Quebec, and will vote against it " - but their vote will not trigger an election. The Liberals are against the budget and will vote against it - but not in such numbers that will trigger an election. In other words, they accept that it is a stay-the-course, hold-the-line budget that may ultimately benefit the nation. If it were otherwise - and the poll numbers were right - the government could easily be brought down. But check some poll numbers on the budget; a majority on CTV's live blog seemed to agree, to a greater or lesser extent, that the budget was OK. It will be interesting to see what Ipsos and the other polling companies dredge up. Wait for something to happen about a year from now, when the economy is much stronger, and the next budget has made minor tax increases (probably GST) to move the debt down. As soon as that is underway, the Opposition will strike, maybe win an election, and claim credit for solving the nation's fiscal problem - that they caused! But they are just politicians . . .

Frank Buchan
said

Recovery by way of projected growth is a foolish stance. The budget isn't bad, but this is the time when a real conservative government would be reassessing the public service structure, and trying to eliminate services that are irrelevant to good governance. We cannot sustain the present system forever, and not making changes now means being forced into a purely reactionary stance some day.

Prof. Pye Chartt
said

@ Wendy: Typically vacuous and Liberal is the suggestion that cutting a tax (ie. GST) during economically good times was foolish. By perverse logic, would you have preferred that your political nemeses, PM Harper and his Conservatives, raised the GST in order for Ottawa to HOARD excess sums of our hard-earned tax money in the historical spirit of Chretien/Martin, who used said money for bogus political bragging rights (ie. "surplus") and partisan political endeavors (ie. Adscam)? Michael Ignatieff and the Opposition wholeheartedly supported the federal stimulus package in Parliament. You "co-own" every nickel of our federal deficit. Suck it up, and try having your failing Liberal Leader conjure a single worthy and workable idea to reduce it. Or, just give it a rest, and stop whining.

Peter 1951
said

Damned if you do Damned if you don�t. It is real easy to be a member of the opposition party these days. All they have to say is they are spending too much or they aren�t spending enough. There is nothing for the poor, or senior and the unemployed. As a tax payer�s I think we deserve to not only hear all the criticism from the opposition parties, but let us here exactly what they would do or offer Canada, not just some, as they say symbolic things, but lets us here what they would do right down to the last penny, so I can make my decision who I would vote for when the election comes around. It is easy to stand there and shoot down the budget when you offer nothing in return. The one thing that still bothers me so much about Liberal leader Ignatieff, is he stands there and tells us how much he loves Canada, if that is true why did he leave this country and work in the USA for 35 years, or has he just loved us for the last 5 years ?????

Pierre
said

If this is all they could come up with after proroguing Parlement, I think this Government should not be supported and needs to go!How dare they suspend work of investigative bodies to consult people and then produce this Throne Speach and Budget which contains nothing. In another continual attempt to distract Canadians, Harper and Flaherty through out the issue in the Throne Speach to review the National Anthem, so that Canadians will forget that proroguing of Parlement and his power grap in the Senate, the killing of investigative bodies looking into Harper Government lack of leadership, violating international and national human rights, etc. You mark my words. Once the economy is good and they have eliminated the deficit, they will give themselves a raise...without doing the same for the Public Servant, which is the backbone of the Parlementary System and democraty. Again, the errors of bad government is paid on the back of Public Servants, Taxes Payers, the Unemployed, and the Common Canadian. THEY MUST GO! We need an election soon!! This minority situation must end one way or another. Either by giving Harper a majority or giving someone else a majority. Canadians have forgotten how Conservatives are always Governments that run deficits and Liberals are Government that eliminate them and all the while building on improving Canada's international/national reputation of justice for all.

Ben
said

They say them that has gets. Seeing how we has a lame duck government, we gets a lame budget. Did the conservatives enjoy their all expense paid 2 month vacation?

Rob
said

Maybe, if we stopped wrighting off foreign debit, sold the CBC, eliminated the Govener Generals job, cut back on the number of politicians it takes run this country. Get rid of of some these lame grants for watching flowers grow, stricter immigration policies so we donot have to pay to educate them. Get rid of government jobs ,just for the sake of having one, but not doing anything to earn your wages. Mean while the average worker is paying for all of this and we have a huge deficit and our banks are making billions! Are we stupid or what!

alfred
said

HEY WENDY: your liberal friend iggy said canadians don't want an election, canadians also said they don't want iggy as PM. the polls prove it when it comes to leadership. HARPER WINS IN A WALK !

Dan in Wpg
said

The value of the Canadian dollar did not change during or after the buget was released. This means that the people who put their money where their mouth is and have the most skin in the game certainly do not have a negative view of the budget. The comments/opinions of all the arm-chair generals (reporters, pundits, you) are irrelevent in comparison.

Wendy
said

The government has lost 26 billion in GST cuts, now with a 56 billion dollar deficit we pay 100 million per month interest on that money. So instead of the 2 cents coming out of our pockets we rack up 100 million per month in interest. Canada is doomed we will never see the light of day with this government.

Wendy
said

KJ in Kingston Ontario
said

What is frequently left out of the economic analysis is the waste in "productivity" associated with underemployment and unemployment -- the setback these business cycles force on individuals and families which in fact can last the rest of a person's life. The message that your work and your skills -- even that you as a person aren't valued or wanted by the economy can quickly do significant long term damage. It takes very few months of unemployment to permanently degrade the confidence and the potential of the unemployed person to thrive again. It is not like turning a light off and on to "uninstall" a person. What is needed is more balance between the constant greed and fear cycles -- the problem with this recession so far is the people who should have been learning the a "fear" lesson were deemed too big to fail -- so they have been given the wrong lesson... The real fear lesson was given to the middle class though their dashed retirement dreams and not the investment bankers, speculators and big auto makers.

Dean in Abbotsford
said

I would like to be the opposition one day. You don't have to do anything except criticize the sitting gov't and there are no expectations of you. Just once I would like to see any opposition party get off their collective butts and come up with a reasonable proposal or an acceptable alternative to the government's plan.Anyone can criticize anything but can they do it constructively. I saw Jack criticize the budget and didn't say a word about what he would do and back it up with facts or even a party line about what they would do. Iggy baby said they wouldn't accept the budget but that they wouldn't vote down the government over it. They will only vote negatively enough to not bring down the gov't. WHAT?! How about having either some backbone , a platform, or some alternative to what the gov't is trying to do. Perhaps it's time for Jack to fade to black and Iggy to go back to his beloved U.S. adopted home country.

Fact Check: Iggy Crying Over Hockey Game
said

I just wish Ignatieff would stop crying over the USA losing the Gold medal hockey game and give us a critique of the budget.

Wade Ens: Obama Dangerous
said

The big danger is Obama. If he gets the worlds most expensive social program, national health care, past it will destroy the world economy.

Jason
said

I am a Conservative supporter but feel they have not been tough enough with this budget. It pains me to say it, but rather than bashing the Chretien-Martin Liberals for the way they cut spending in the 90's, Harper and Flaherty need to grow a set and start taking action. Simply 'controlling' spending and hoping for a global economic turnaround will only delay the tough choices that other nations are having to make at present. This smells of avoiding short term economic pain for long term political gain. They've blown an opportunity to come out from behind Paul Martin's shadow and establish themselves as true fiscal conservatives.

Stephan
said

We have to ask ourselves they Prorogued the Government for what. I should have been a Conservative MP 2 months off to hand in last years assignment again. They still believe that Canadians will not care or notice that this is an empty Budget with no real commitments.

jim
said

iggy don't like the budget, but won't force an election. must be the poll numbers and his leadership? just like i said; liberals all mouth no action !

Peter in MB
said

Thank goodness we have a government that is not afraid to make unpopular decisions in uncertain times, unlike the gutless wonders of the opposition parties that are more concerned about their polls than what is good for our country.

Brad from Guelph
said

Surprise....the Libs,NDP and the Bloq do not like the budget....Surprise, not one of these parties submitted a counter budget that would turn the economy around and lower the deficit at the same time....Surprise no party will force an election over this budget...Iggy's next move will be to move back to the States where he lived for years,or maybe he could move to Greece and help "save" that contry's economy....well I guess I can just dream he will leave and maybe take Bob Rae with him..and maybe Jack Layton as well...

Prof. Pye Chartt
said

Pierre Elliot Trudeau, the "beloved" intellectual wizard of Canadian politics, and longstanding hero to the directionless Liberal Party, bestowed many gifts upon this nation during his remarkable (read: frightful) tenure as PM. As I recall, one of the beauties was Canada's first post-war structural deficit, which was enjoyed (read: suffered) for many years. Thankfully, Finance Minister Flaherty isn't that stupid. Speaking of silly, I wonder how many misinformed Liberal supporters will today, again, try to tell us that the Chretien/Martin "surplus" was anything other than the result of creative accounting, and orchestrated with the aid of the Conservative's GST, cutting and siphoning provincial transfers and entitlements, giving our military the financial finger, raiding public-service funds and EI, dispensing with key tax incentives to business, and maintaining the stifling taxation of whatever revenue source that didn't fall over and die. A couple more hysterical comments having to do with CMHC-driven "sub-prime" mortgages, and how they supposedly spell our impending doom, will further demonstrate a Liberal supporter's weak grasp of facts and reality as they relate to American and Canadian market scenarios. Ultimately, perhaps we'll also be treated to some more vague and worthless criticism of the federal budget by Liberal wizards Michael Ignatieff and "former" socialist (provincial NDP leader) Bob Rae, who haven't managed, thus far, to table any specific or concrete budgetary ideas beyond general (read: meaningless) platitudes. No wonder the Liberals find themselves needing to pop a Prozac after every popularity poll.

Red X
said

Business will get a $47 billion tax cut which is funded by the Conservative deficit spending from all tax payers!

Charlena
said

The economy was and is the way that it is because the people the new professionals whose income would normally gear someone to spend on large ticket items (cars / homes), are not! The young professionals who would normally be buying homes, cars, clothes, eating at restaurants, travelling across Canada to see its beauty, and enjoying the pleasures of Canada, cannot because of their high student debt load. Instead, they spend years paying back a loan, with money that could have easily sparked a growth in the national spending. Imagine if more was done to assist post secondary and post graduate students repay their debt? It is not unfathomable that the extra spending that would likely result would stimulate the economy. An average of $20,000 per post secondary student is an extraordinary delay in spending. This number increases for post graduate students. They are the people that would normally be buying the goods that our manufacturers are struggling to sell. Especially when it comes to purchasing a condo and/or home, a car, and not to mention delaying any decision to have a family. I have heard of students graduating with a debt of $75,000 and more. Let�s get people spending. Forgive some of the student loans, or make them tax deductible (and no not just the interest). Reduce it to those who can prove that they are practicing in their field. It may also keep more students in Canada and not force them to seek employment elsewhere because their salaries are more competitive. Just a thought. Finally, yes, those that are recently unemployed because of the decline in the economy and particularly manufacturing jobs need more assistance in this budget. Their need is more urgent.

trunorth
said

You are absolutely right, Shirley - SK. We are at the mercy of greedy people, and our banks top that list. Witness their obsene profits, even in times when most everyone else is suffering financially. They even manage to raise interest rates (on lines of credit) when the Bank of Canada has lowered them. When will our government seriously crack down on these gluttons?

Bryan
said

One year to kill a decade of surplus budgets, five years (and billions in debt) to get back on track. Not exactly a good move on the gov part.But hey, what do they care - its not like their the ones paying the bills. Its their kids, and grandkids, and great-grankids who get to foot the bill for their extravagances.

SK Small Businessman
said

The government has no choice..this country should not follow the lead of Obama and doom future generations to a mountain of debt...

Stephan Martin
said

This is simply an example of a "Smoke Screen Budget". There is many conflicts with this budget but lets start with the deficit. The Government had written in a way that makes them look good and depends that Canada economy will grow 6% a year for the next 5 years to get rid of the deficit. If the economy does not grow 6% a year a really big number for a 5 year term it has the tools to severely cut the budget and cut transfer payments to provinces. This is an empty Budget written to avoid hard decision before a possible election. Canadians well again pay for the mismanagement of our money.

Shirley - SK
said

Under these circumstances, a recession not made in Canada, there is not too much bad things we can say about this budget. If I was government I would have axed funding to small interest groups who are always looking for money, biligualizm should be axed, gun registry and any redundant federal job. Sadly to save money more jobs would be lost and here we go with an increase in unemployment. It is a vicious circle and the reliance on government to fix everything is not the answer either. The Liberals would be drowning if they were in power, we are all paying a price for the actions of some greedy people in this world.

Jim McB
said

It is unwise for economists to compare us to EU countries. Their level of socialist activity is much greater, unions have power and constantly degrade the governments ability to act and they bought in to the environmental scams fronted by the NGO's and are bleeding because of taxes and trading in commodities that have no use in the economy. Where do you use the CO2 that you buy?Our slow steady approach without the environmental knee jerks has served us well. By the time we get to the economy crippling stage the debunking of bad science will likely steer us in the right direction. Europe is after agreements because like Quebec they think there is free money in it. Unlike Quebec they didn't submerge half of their ecosystems to get power, they were wise enough to go nuclear!