MPs attack budget

By Dan Hilborn
Published May 6, 2006


A total of 29 tax cuts, including a one per cent drop in the goods and services tax and a new $1,200 per child tax credit, are among the highlights of the new federal budget, introduced by the Conservative minority government on Tuesday.

But reaction to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's first budget has fractured along predictable political lines, with local NDP members of Parliament saying the proposed spending plan does little to help poor and working-class families in general, and British Columbians in particular.

"This is very similar to a Liberal budget," said Peter Julian, the NDP MP for Burnaby-New Westminster. "There's lots of corporate tax cuts - about $7-billion worth of tax cuts oriented towards the wealthiest people in Canada."

Julian said a table "tucked away" in the budget documents reveals that, when all the changes are taken into account, a low-income family will save about $1.80 per week, or about $93 annually, while a couple earning more than $150,000 will save about $2,000.

Julian also decried the $400-million investment in the forest sector, including a plan to battle the pine beetle in B.C.'s Interior, and said that funding was less than the $500 million handed over to U.S. lumber manufacturers under the new softwood lumber accord reached one week earlier.

"We've just handed over control of our forestry practices to the United States," Julian said.

Bill Siksay, the NDP MP in Burnaby-Douglas, said the Tories also did nothing substantial to support post-secondary education.

"The Conservatives have a debt plan," Siksay said. "They've increased the opportunity for students to go into debt by increasing the student loan program."

Siksay, whose riding includes Simon Fraser University, said the NDP would prefer to see lower tuition fees, using the $1 billion fund the Conservatives have targeted for post-secondary institution infrastructure.

Siksay, the party's citizenship and immigration critic, also said the Tories should have completely eliminated the right-of-landing fee for new immigrants instead of simply lowering it from $975 to $490.

"This is money new immigrants to our community need. When they move from halfway around the world, they need to establish themselves with basic necessities," Siksay said. "We've always opposed the right-of-landing fee. It's a significant burden."

Dawn Black, the NDP MP for New Westminster-Coquitlam, was most upset by the Conservative child-care plan, which she said will not address the major problem facing local families - a lack of affordable spaces for young children.

"There's a dire need for more accessible child care," she said. "Basically, they've just reinstituted the family allowance program. While parents appreciate any help they can get, there's very little help here."

Black said she would have preferred the universal child-care plan proposed by the former Liberal government during its 13 years in office.

Local Tories were much more enthusiastic about the spending plan.

"I'm personally delighted," said Ariane Eckhardt, president of the Burnaby-Douglas Conservative riding association. "And you know, it doesn't matter what we do, the NDP always says it's wrong."

Eckhardt said the reduction in GST and the $1,200 annual child- care subsidy are proof that the Tories are looking out for low-income earners.

"You can reduce income tax all you like, but if a person doesn't pay income tax, then they're not going to benefit from it," she said.

And while the GST may not be popular, Eckhardt also said it is preferable to other forms of taxation, at least in her own view, because it is a visible tax.

"I want to know when the government is tampering with my taxes," she said.

And on the child-care subsidy, Eckhardt said the Tory plan will be especially popular with the people who need it most, single-parent families who simply don't have enough money for day care right now.

"For a single mother who has some family support, this is $1,200 in her pocket," she said. "It's amazing how many people are overlooking that."

Local Liberal Bill Cunningham, the Burnaby-Douglas candidate from the past two federal elections, said the best parts of the Conservative budget were the programs they lifted right out of the Liberals' policy book.

"Those things that are important to British Columbia are primarily initiatives introduced by the Liberals," Cunningham said, pointing specifically at the $591-million Gateway transportation infrastructure plan, which will take two years longer to complete under the Tory plan than it would have under the Liberal plan.

"I commend them for appreciating the wisdom of the Liberal Gateway strategy, but rather than building on that, all they did was lengthen the time it will take for those resources to feed into the system."

Cunningham also had some harsh criticism for the Conservative child-care plan. "That's the most unfortunate aspect of this budget," said the single 35-year-old. "They have replaced a long- awaited national child-care initiative with a quick-hit tax credit that does nothing to address long-term care and early learning needs.

"I think the cry and demand for a true national child-care system will be even louder as a result of this."

He also said the Tories gave students a mere $80 tax break to buy textbooks, instead of the Liberal plan to defer $6,000 worth of tuition from their first and final years of university.