So that was the budget – so close to being balanced, but apparently in a position to run a surplus next year – and just in time for an election, wouldn’t you know? Maclean’s gives you the highlights, like half a billion dollars for the auto sector, departmental freeze, money for bridges in Windsor and Montreal, $1.5 billion over ten years for research, internships and extending student loans to skilled trades, and vague promises to sic the Competition Bureau on those who perpetuate the price gap with the US (as problematic a promise as that is). Mike Moffatt points out how much more complicated the tax credits are getting in this budget, which increases the red tape and regulatory burden that they claim to want to be rid of, as well as nine changes in the budget that are likely to fly under the radar. Stephen Gordon shows how the Conservatives are aggressively reducing the size of government. Kevin Page wishes Jim Flaherty well if he reaches surplus next year and has to figure out what to do with it. And here are Maclean’s five key points from the budget.
In other measures, veterans’ burials are getting an additional $108 million, the government wants public service retirees to pay more for their health benefits, Ontario feels aggrieved because they feel they’re getting their equalization cut (Flaherty says it’s because their economy has grown), the government plans to table legislation to keep suspended parliamentarians – like a certain trio of senators – from accruing pensionable time during those suspensions, excise duties are going up $4 on a carton of cigarettes, plus a number of other small measures. Measures like enshrining the military “Royal” designations into the National Defence Act. Part of the fiscal room is coming from deferring spending on military hardware for another couple years, owing to the continuing ballsing up of procurements, hence they’re not going to book those expenses this year. Not only will charities face more scrutiny, but so will Bitcoin, and there’s a whole bunch more money headed for FINTRAC. Here are the broad numbers.
John Geddes has four questions arising from the budget, after all is said and done. Michael Den Tandt calls it an anodyne, unambitious, comfort food budget, while Andrew Coyne says it’s not a bad budget per se, but nevertheless continues to put politics before principle.
Peter MacKay plans to forge ahead with the planned “life sentence means life” legislation, despite not identifying an actual need for such legislation, not studying the proposal, and not costing it out (not to mention it’s almost certainly going to be unconstitutional under cruel and unusual punishment). But yay tough on crime optics!
Susan Delacourt outlines five things to know about the Conservative leaks on Monday. And no, they weren’t intentional.
The Conservative members of the Procedure and House Affairs committee rejected the NDP proposal to hold cross-country consultations on the new elections bill. The bill continues to disadvantage independent MPs, particularly in the rules around fundraising.
A transgendered comedian was being held in a male detention facility in Ontario despite having a female passport, after she was detained for visa problems. It demonstrates the problems with the case-by-case regulations in Ontario, and likely a lack of training on the part of CBSA agents.
In light of the new Conservative citizenship bill, Chris Selley writes an excellent column to note that yes, citizenship is in fact a right, that the bill sounds suspiciously like it’ll target the likes of Omar Khadr, and that actually strengthening citizenship would mean holding wayward or treasonous citizens to account. (Khadr, incidentally, just got moved to a medium security facility).
And my column this week looks at the political scandal in the UK of the Tories trying to stage manage their MPs’ questions in PMQ, and how that sounds so quaint to those of us in Canada, where we really should be returning to that kind of a system where scripts are banned in the House.