Little details you probably missed in the federal budget
After a deep dive into Canada’s 2017 federal budget, the National Post has emerged with spending details on Mars exploration, children’s hacking and the Uber tax. We put together some factoids you — or Joe, the hypothetical Canadian referenced repeatedly in question period Thursday — might have missed in the flood of coverage surrounding Wednesday’s budget release.
LIFE ON MARS?
If opposition MPs, like strangers in a strange land, are questioning what planet starry- eyed Liberals are on, they might find a clue in the budget’s flashy innovation chapter. It includes a boost for the Canadian Space Agency, to the tune of $80.9 million, on a cash basis, over five years.
Plans include “quantum technology” and “Mars surface observation,” with Canada aiming to NASA’s next Mars Orbiter Mission. An additional $ 10 million will fund the Institute for Quantum Computing for two more years, which provides the opportunity for many more memes of the prime minister standing in front of a chalkboard.
MARIJUANA SURVEILLANCE
As the government prepares to legalize weed, it proposes $ 9.6 million over five years, and $ 1 million every year thereafter, for “public education programming and surveillance activities.” The suggestion of “surveillance” without any explanation seems a little dubious. Finance Canada, swamped with media requests Thursday, didn’t get back to us on that one.
CHILDCARE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW?
Liberals were congratulating themselves in the House of Commons Thursday for bringing in billions worth of childcare benefits. But the significant $ 7 billion in spending, divided up over 10 years, will only start in 2018, with a majority coming after the next federal election. Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats, who’ve long advocated for better childcare services, decry the delay and say the 40,000 possible new spaces are slight in comparison to the 800,000 needed.
SERVICES IN THE SLAMMER
Canada’s prison population will benefit from $ 57.8 million over five years, and $ 13.6 million a year thereafter, for mental health services. Per the John Howard Society of Canada, treating rather than punishing the mentally ill is one of five key pillars to fixing the corrections system, and according to Correctional Service Canada, “promotion of mental health stability may contribute to increased public safety.”
Garnering praise Thursday from the Canadian Psychological Association, almost $6 billion in this budget is tied to mental health, including $ 5 billion over 10 years for general mental health initiatives and $828.2 million over five years for First Nations and Inuit “medical and mental health care.”
CODING LESSONS FOR KIDS
Calling all young hackers! Get ready to benefit from federal government- funded “coding and digital skills” workshops. With $50 million in funding over two years, after a competitive process, “digital skills training organizations” will bring the likes of C++ and Python and Java into classrooms.
We’ll bet nothing sounds more exciting right now to Canada’s youth, post- March Break. More l i ke March Break-that-encryption, am I right, kids?
TAXING TAXI TAXES
The Liberals plan to tax commercial ride- sharing services the same way they do taxis by subjecting them to GST and HST. Uber’s Canada manager, Ian Black, fired back in a statement Thursday calling this a “tax on innovation” that would hurt one million Canadians. “We should be supporting policies that make sustainable transportation more affordable, not more expensive,” Black said.
A NON- TAX HIKE
While the Tories complain about tax hikes, Liberals are hoping to sway you with other hikes. Who’s ready for a 24,000- km trek across the Great White North? It’ll cost $ 30 million over five years for Parks Canada to oversee the completion, enhancement and maintenance of the Trans Canada Trail, this year’s budget says. The network of trails takes you from west to east and through every provincial capital.
We checked, and to walk the most direct route from Vancouver, B. C. to Glace Bay, on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, it’d take you 53-and-a-half days of straight walking. Happy trails!