Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP Ken Boshcoff says the first Conservative budget released last week backs out of funding promises made by the previous Liberal government, which could spell trouble for Northwestern Ontario.
“Right off the bat is the cut from $1.5 billion for forestry to $400 million, mostly for B.C. pine beetle,” he noted. “That, of course, is worrisome.”
The cut in promised funding could have a profound impact on the industry in Northwestern Ontario, Boshcoff warned.
“It’s going to be a much more difficult road,” he argued. “It means we have to reorganize and get back in the race.”
The Forest Products Association of Canada welcomed the government’s initiatives, however.
“The industry is very encouraged by these measures, which will help stimulate and reward capital investment in Canada and are a welcome first step in addressing the tax disadvantage that the Canadian forest products industry currently faces against its international competitors,” said Avrim Lazar, president and CEO of FPAC.
“The commitment to addressing the specific challenges facing the sector, such as pine beetles, as well as the measures to eliminate capital tax, the corporate surtax, and reduce the corporate tax rate to 19 percent, are very clear indications that the government understands the challenges presently facing the industry and that it supports the industry and the over 300,000 Canadians it directly employs in the hundreds of forest-dependent communities from coast-to-coast,” Lazar added.
Boshcoff also cited the raising of income taxes for the lowest tax bracket, as well as the loss of 1,500 day care spaces in Northwestern Ontario, as serious shortfalls in the budget.
“This hits literally hundreds of families,” he said of the impact it would have in the northwest.
“When we put it all together, we have lots of concerns,” Boshcoff added.
The Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada agreed the Conservative budget will do little to improve child care in Canada.
“This government doesn’t understand the benefits of early learning and child care, or how to develop it,” charged CCAAC co-chair Debra Mayer of Winnipeg.
“An allowance to parents is not an early-learning program for children.”
In cancelling the child care agreements with the provinces, the Harper government took $3.6 billion away from Canadian communities, Mayer added.
This funding was to expand early learning and child care options for more than 100,000 families nation-wide, improve access to child care, particularly for low-income and rural families and for children with special needs, and enhance intervention services for children at-risk.
In Ontario, this funding was to be distributed through the “Best Start” initiative, which now has been put on hold.
Also disappointed with the federal budget is Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine, who blasted the Conservatives for not honouring the Kelowna Accord signed last November.
“It is ironic that the federal government saw fit to invest in combating epidemics of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in developing countries, while many First Nations are living with these diseases and there is no new assistance for them,” he argued.
While the Conservative government honoured the commitment to the 10-year plan to strengthen health care, which gives provinces and territories a six percent increase in transfers, the federal First Nations health system is capped at three percent.
Honouring the investment of $1.3 billion in health under the Kelowna Accord would have achieved an equitable six percent growth rate.
Meanwhile, Boshcoff said some of the tax breaks provided for in the budget were made possible by the sound fiscal management of the previous Liberal government.
“This government has inherited such a solid financial picture and that accounts for many of the goodies,” he noted. “It’s hard to think of any other government that’s had such a positive start, financially.”
Boshcoff pointed to the “huge national debt” the Liberals had to deal with when they formed the government under Jean Chrétien in 1993.
Other items included in last week’s budget were:
•$100 a month to parents for each pre-school child;
•a tax credit to help post-secondary students with the cost of textbooks;
•a one percent cut in the GST on July 1;
•a .5 percent increase in the lowest income tax rate, effective July 1;
•$1.1 billion in new funding for the military;
•$161 million over two years to hire 1,000 more RCMP officers and federal prosecutors to focus on drugs, corruption, and border security;
•a tax credit for people who buy monthly or annual public transportation passes;
•$450 million over two years for aboriginal housing, education, social programs, and water quality; and,
•a $3 billion a year reduction in the national debt.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
