Tall order for Finance Minister Bill Morneau
TheStar.com – News/Canada – Finance Minister Bill Morneau has one of the longest to-do lists. It’s also perhaps the toughest given updated and worsening economic and fiscal health projections by the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
Nov 13 2015. By: Tonda MacCharles, Ottawa Bureau reporter
Finance Minister Bill Morneau, along with ministerial colleagues holding other economic portfolios like industry, innovation, natural resources, employment, and revenue, has one of the longest to-do lists. It’s also perhaps the toughest given updated and worsening economic and fiscal health projections by the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Morneau and other ministers must:
– Balance the budget in 2019-20 while “continuing to reduce the federal debt-to-GDP ratio throughout our mandate.”
– Implement a promised middle-class tax cut by raising taxes on those earning more than $200,000.
– Cancel “income-splitting” for families while retaining it for seniors – a way for the elderly to reduce their income tax bill at the end of the year.
– Bring in a new and enhanced Canada Child benefit that replaces the Conservative government’s monthly universal benefit cheques to parents, in a bid to direct more money to middle- and low-income families.
– Enhance” the Canada Pension Plan
– Mount a massive 10-year infrastructure program that will spend billions more on public transit; affordable housing, seniors’ facilities, early learning and child care, and cultural and recreational infrastructure; “green” infrastructure such as water and wastewater facilities, “clean” energy, “climate resilient infrastructure” like flood mitigation systems.
– Review the tax system and pare back the Conservatives’ boutique tax credits or “poorly targeted and inefficient measures, wasteful spending, and government initiatives that are ineffective or have outlived their purpose.”
– Reduce EI premiums
– Lift the 2-per-cent cap on annual funding increases to First Nations and develop “sufficient, predictable and sustained funding for First Nations communities.”
– Phase out subsidies for the fossil fuel industry over the medium-term.
– Develop appropriate investments and strategies for the auto sector to adjust to Canada’s potential participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
– Provide more generous and flexible leave for caregivers and more flexible parental leave.
– Repeal the Federal Balanced Budget Act.
< http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/11/13/tall-order-for-finance-minister-bill-morneau.html >
Tags: budget, child care, economy, featured, ideology, Indigenous, pensions, poverty, standard of living, tax
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