Federal Budget Focuses on Jobs

Thursday, March 04, 2010 01:26 PM

Prince George, B.C.- The Federal Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty has risen in the House of Commons to present the Federal Budget for 2010.

Calling it a Jobs and Growth Budget, Flaherty outlined $19 billion dollars in new federal stimulus spending.

· $3.2 billion in personal income tax relief

· More than $4 billion in additional benefits, training opportunities and employment Insurance premium relief

· $7.7 billion in infrastructure stimulus create jobs

· $1.9 billion to create the economy of tomorrow.

· $2.2 billion to support industries and communities.

· More than $100 million to protect jobs by extending the maximum lengtrh for work sharing agreements

· $108 million to support young workers through internships and skills development

· Over $600 million to help develop and attract talented people to strengthen the capacity for world leading research and development and to improve the commercialization of research

· Stay the course on the exit strategy built into the Economic Action Plan as temporary measures will be wound down as planned

· Restrain spending through targeted reductions, $17.6 billion in savings over five years

· Government will undertake a comprehensive review of government administrative functions and overhead costs to identify additional savings and improve service delivery.

· There will be no increase in taxes, there will be no cuts to transfers for health education and pensioners.

Flaherty also says the salaries of the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament and senators will be frozen. The budgets of ministries will also be frozen.

He says within 2 years time the deficit ( $56 Billion ) will be cut in half, by two thirds in the following year, and within 5 years it will be eliminated.

In closing, Flaherty said “Our Government means to be a partner in Canada’s recovery, not an obstacle to its growth.”

He told the House of Commons the message to investors and manufacturers is simple “Canada is open for business.”

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Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 01:26 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: hood rich on March 5 2010 12:44 AM

Someone forgot to put Jay Hill's name on the article. This budget is about avoiding tough decisions. Right now we are in a structural deficit. All that was said by this budget was "we are going to make the tough decisions". Well I would hope so. I would hope that a budget would tell us the game plan not trust us we got a plan but we'll share when its opportune. Either taxes have to be raised or spending cut. Harper has put his parties needs ahead of the country. Brutal.

Posted by: Pylot Project on March 5 2010 7:53 AM

Harper's days are numbered. This vanilla budget is in place to get the Conservatives through another year or so. Once some tough decision and bills start to roll through Parliament, the Liberals and other will bring the house down and we will be going forward with an election.

If Harper doesn't get the Majority, his leadership will be questioned and put under the microscope. There's a number of Conservatives who want his job.

Let's hope that all the bills that need to begin again actually go through this time without Harper dropping another Prorogue bomb to avoid confrontation.

Posted by: He spoke on March 5 2010 8:32 AM

What choice do we have, If we don't have Harper, are we going to bet our life on a man that spent 30 years of his prime career days in the United States. Are we going to vote in a leader who has no idea where the money comes from. Are we going to enpower a leader that is not a national party.

As long as everything stays the status quo on the leadership of each party. its still going to be the same old same old.

Stephen Harper is not charismatic, but he is doing a OK job. Harper does not look like a leader, but a very good politician. I don't mind him being our leader, he is letting us do what we need to do to make a living. No leader of any party will be able to give us everything and throw safety nets out there for everyone. We just need to suck it up, and make it thru this little bump in our lives.

The Conservatives have no need to replace Harper. Thus they will run that horse until either he quits or they get voted out. Ignateff won't lead the Liberals to a win situation, if the Liberals want to win, they need to get a person from Canada with Charisma. Good Luck.

Posted by: He spoke on March 5 2010 8:33 AM

So is useless Dick going to retire?

Posted by: Andyfreeze on March 5 2010 9:15 AM

Harper would find more support if he would clean house in his government.
Too many usless trough-feeders hanging around doing nothing, waiting to collect their fat pensions...that they did little to earn.
(not to mention any names of course...wink wink!)

Posted by: cheeta on March 5 2010 10:17 AM

well He spoke - that was a pretty unproducting comment. Not very nice at all.