Finance Minister Flaherty gave his fiscal update today and vowed that the Conservatives will put all future budget surpluses towards the debt. Those of us who've lived through the same regime in Alberta know exactly what that brings: years of neglect when it comes to funding priorities like education, health care, social programs and infrastructure. And now that Alberta is debt free (and don't believe the soundbite that Canada will be debt free by 2021 - it's not quite that simple), trying to get any money reinvested to crucial programs by these Tories is like getting blood from a stone because now they stash away extra cash in their 'rainy day' fund.Those of you who were hoping that the Cons would keep their election promise to get rid of the GST will have a long wait before that ever happens since they expect to eliminate only an additional 1% in 2011. And income splitting? Not quite yet, Flaherty claims.
I haven't had the chance to review all of Flaherty's promises yet but I can tell you that this update does practically nothing for the poorest of the poor. There will be tax cuts of course, but when you don't even make enough to pay taxes in the first place, tax cuts mean nothing. And the fact that they are devoting all surplus money to the debt while stating that they'll provide adequate funding for sorely needed social programs in their spending plans only means that they can then claim they just don't have more money to spend on real needs once people start feeling the impact of what will surely be cuts. That's what the Klein government did and the approach was absolutely exasperating and destructive.
This is a typical hard-right, conservative, ideologically-based budget update. I'm sure we'll hear a number of objections to the details in the days to come.
Update: The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says tax cuts are too pricey.
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