Conservative budget fails middle class families
February 13, 2014
On budget night, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he can’t think of any Canadians who will be hurt by this budget.
But the reality is: this is a budget that goes out of its way to hurt Canada’s veterans and retired police officers. For Canadians who have bravely served this country and are now retired on a fixed income, this budget doubles the amount they must pay each month for their government healthcare plan. Under Budget 2014, an elderly couple will have to pay an extra $567 every year (on top of what they are already paying) just to keep their existing medical plan.
Minister Flaherty also failed to mention that this budget hurts middle class Canadians by prolonging the status quo; there is no plan to grow the economy or provide relief for families. The budget does next to nothing to help parents who are struggling to pay the bills.
In 2013, personal debt in Canada hit in a new high, and the average Canadian household now owes $1.66 for every $1 of disposable income. Too many Canadians have delayed their retirement savings and do not know how they will make ends meet when interest rates rise.
One of the reasons that middle class parents have taken on extra debt is to financially support their adult children. Their new graduates may have a college or university education – and sometimes both – but they can’t seem to catch a break. They are not alone. Today, there are 262,000 fewer jobs for young Canadians than before the economic downturn.
But the Finance Minister wasn’t thinking of them when he wrote this budget.
Instead of introducing a plan to create sustainable, good-paying jobs, this budget will cut provincial programs that are helping Canadians find work. The budget also slows job creation by keeping Employment Insurance (E.I.) taxes artificially high.
The Conservatives should cut E.I. taxes in order to help Canadian employers create jobs and allow Canadian workers to keep more of their hard-earned pay. Instead, the Conservatives are set to collect billions of dollars in E.I. taxes over and above what is required to pay for E.I. benefits. They plan to use that extra money to pad the government’s books and create a surplus.
The Conservatives are also padding the books with one-time asset sales and further delays in much needed military procurement. All of this is being done to create the illusion of a budgetary surplus on the eve of an election. None of this is sustainable.
Unfortunately, it will be left to the next government to clean up the Conservatives’ mess.
Scott Brison, M.P.
Liberal Finance Critic