Economy, jobs the focus on Tuesday

OTTAWA — The federal budget, to be tabled Tuesday, will put money into job creation and infrastructure while remaining risk-free, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told political talk shows Sunday.

“This year we’re approaching balance,” Flaherty told Global’s The West Block. “If we really, really pushed it and took some risk, we can balance the budget earlier perhaps, but we don’t want to do that. We will balance next year in 2015.”

Flaherty told CTV’s Question Period that the budget’s emphasis will be on the economy and job creation, but stressed that the government is being “careful” and “cautious.”

“We’ve looked at hundreds of issues and some of the most important ones are relating to jobs, relating to young people, relating to apprenticeships, relating to internships, relating to getting people that first job even though they’re well educated and so on,” he said.

Flaherty noted a recent government study found between 700,000 and 800,000 Canadians were ready to join the workforce if given the opportunity and he said this indicates the government needs “to do a better job at matching the people who want to work with the jobs that are available.”

To do this, he said the government is looking at ways to help young people, aboriginals and people with disabilities find their first jobs.