Tuesday’s budget was surprising enough to make a Torontonian trip over an uprooted TTC floor tile.
What Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty proposed is backwards on so many levels. It was counter-intuitive to Conservatives, to designating funds, and to our future. We are lucky that Ignatieff has recognized this backwardness and has called Canada to work together.
The first degree of reversal is in Conservative policy. Luckily for Canada, Harper has released his most Liberal-style budget. Although he insists he still values conservative financial policies such as small government, lower taxes and less intervention, he has pushed these aside in proposing bailouts, larger legislation, and interventionist policies.
Prior to the budget, mayors from across Canada urged Flaherty for more funding to look after their pre-planned, pre-budgeted, shovel-ready infrastructure projects. Instead, the budget proposes funding that must be designated along administrative lines set by the federal government.
Plans must be re-made and cities must designate certain percentages of their allotted sums to projects in order to receive funding. The potential delays could very well mean that these projects will never see the light of day.
Some of these shovel-ready projects include improvements to crumbling TTC stations (think uprooted floor tiles) and money for new transit options.
But what’s most surprising to the average Torontonian is that Harper is investing in cities—yes, the despised, non-oil producing, left-leaning metropolises. This is obviously an effort to break new ground in the next election, and yet these measures seem in opposition to Harper’s policies.
There are plenty of decent proposals in this budget if you live in the ever-growing suburbs, including funding for extracurricular activities. Although there are no childcare improvements, a $2,000 per-child tax credit, extending RRSPs, and allowing more money for RESPs have been proposed. In addition, $2 billion has been budgeted for repair and maintenance projects at post-secondary institutions, 70 per cent of which is for universities.
But not much is left for those outside infrastructure-boosted cities and suburban zones. Those who live in poverty, in addition to those who have been recently laid-off, have very little to gain from this budget.
Another backwards move by the Conservatives is proposing specific objectives to a malleable economy. Flaherty seems to predict some sort of magical boost to the Canadian economy next year, and an end to the recession in Canada within five years. Because of this arbitrary prediction, our budget is not suited to withstand the possibility of a deeper recession.
Another concern is the environment. Although one billion dollars are to be slated for environmental development programs, this is merely a fraction of the potentially hundreds of thousands of green jobs resource-rich Canada could be developing.
These concerns for the future have called Canada’s role in the world into question. Where will we be as a nation in five years? A decade? Twenty years? The changing economy, forthcoming Olympics and new presidential dynasty are all setting the stage for a new Canada. Harper should have seized this opportunity to define which direction Canada should head in.
Ignatieff came forward yesterday with an amendment to the budget that will benefit Canadians. He wants quarterly updates on the cost and results programs proposed by parliament. Each of these would be proposed as confidence motions, meaning change that does not satisfy Canadians may result in an election. This will help ensure that propositions, especially infrastructure projects, see results. It will also certainly put the Conservatives in their place and allow time for the Liberals to reorganize.
Ignatieff seems to be the voice of reason. The Conservatives have broken ground with a revolutionary budget, and the Liberals want to see the results while taking them to task. Although he wasn’t keen on last year’s coalition proposal, Ignatieff said yesterday that it “has shown that we can work together. Canadians need to get used to the idea that we can work together.”
Amen.
