Liberals’ budget disappointing

BUDGET 2017 ADDS TAXES AND INCREASES GROWING DEFICIT LOAD WHILE NOT HELPING CANADIANS WHO NEED IT

When the federal government releases its annual budget, it’s far more than numbers on a page. It’s a declaration of intent; a vision statement of sorts. On March 22 the Liberal government put forward Budget 2017. In this 278page document, they outlined their plan to spend your money — that is to say, the money of taxpayers.

Everyone knows that I am a Conservative Member of Parliament; I believe governments should be as small as possible, business owners should be provided with freedom to innovate and create jobs, and freedom of choice should be protected. Naturally, I look at the budget through a different lens than the Liberals do.

As the Member of Parliament for Lethbridge and as a Conservative, I was thoroughly disappointed by the federal budget. The bottom line is this: the Liberals are hiking taxes, stalling on infrastructure spending, doing little to help seniors, and don’t have a plan to support the rising generation. And I haven’t even mentioned the fact that the Liberals are incurring a deficit load of $28.9 billion in this budget, which is a far cry from the $10 billion they promised during the election and will leave future generations with the task of paying the bill.

To be fair, there were a few positive measures that combined previous Conservative initiatives — such as the Caregiver Tax Credit that rolls three different Conservative tax credits into one credit. The Liberals continued the Conservatives’ trend of providing greater access and flexibility to student loans to ensure adult learners have the resources they need to access training to improve their work prospects. The budget also provided new flexibility to mothers on maternity leave and for people on Employment Insurance to return to school, which will give Canadians greater ownership of their lives and allow them to determine for themselves the best way to manage their situation.

But, unfortunately, these positives were overshadowed by a host of new taxes. With increased taxes on public transit, Uber, beer, wine, tobacco, home heating and gasoline, life just got more expensive for Canadians. These new taxes will make life less affordable and disproportionately affect those with low or fixed incomes. I am particularly concerned for seniors on fixed incomes and low-income households.

Furthermore, I was really hoping to see funds come available for infrastructure projects in our community, but unfortunately this was not the case. Since the Liberals took office, 94 per cent of announced infrastructure projects have failed to start construction. This means jobs are not being created and the economy isn’t being stimulated the way the Liberals promised. Budget 2017 contains no new infrastructure spending beyond what was announced in the 2016 Fall Economic Statement. And as for Lethbridge, we got left out in the cold! The funding that is available is targeted at Liberal-friendly big cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. There is no new funding for small and medium cities like Lethbridge.

When it comes to helping seniors, Budget 2017 is far more harmful than helpful. The Liberals scrapped the Public Transit Credit, eliminated the Family Caregiver Tax Credit, and increased the cost of living by calling for a Carbon Tax. And to top it all off, the Prime Minister continues to refuse to put a Minister of Seniors in place. Right now, one in six Canadians is a senior. They deserve more.

Instead of raising taxes, Justin Trudeau should focus on supporting policies that will create jobs — particularly for young Canadians. In the last year, Canadians aged 15-24 lost 42,000 full-time jobs. And to make matters worse, the Finance Minister has stated that young workers needs to get used to “job churn.” This is unacceptable. Since being elected in 2015, I’ve travelled from coast to coast talking to young people, and one of the things I’ve heard over and over again is that the federal government should provide a tax incentive to employers who hire young people. Such an approach would allow the free market to reward job creation and, unlike government job programs, would result in long-term, good-paying jobs. Budget 2017 was a missed opportunity to advocate for our country’s young labour force.

Sadly, with this budget the Liberals are mortgaging the future of our great country and it’s our children who will have to foot the bill. It is extremely concerning to me that Budget 2017 puts the Liberals on track to spend $100 billion more than they will collect in taxes during their life as a government. This is like taking out a $100-billion mortgage that our children and grandchildren will have to repay. This is pretty hard to justify when our children and grandchildren will see little to no benefit from this spending.

In short, I will be voting against Budget 2017. Standing up for Lethbridge means opposing these dangerous Liberal economic plans.