Two northern MPs, two very different reactions.
Rob Clarke, who represents Creighton and Denare Beach, and Niki Ashton, who represents Flin Flon, are responding to the Harper government’s latest budget.
“Our government has kept our promise to Canadians by delivering the first balanced budget since the Great Recession,” said Clarke, the Conservative MP for Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River. “Our Conservative government has paid down $37 billion in debt since 2006. As we move to erase Canada’s debt, we are ensuring that taxpayer dollars go to important programs, rather than the repayment of interest.”
Not surprisingly Clarke endorses the budget, unveiled Tuesday, the government’s final fiscal plan before the October federal election.
Clarke said the Economic Action Plan component of the budget is set to deliver jobs and growth for his riding.
“We are supporting mining with a $22 million investment in the Targeted Geoscience Initiative, which will develop new, in-depth knowledge to help Canadian companies better exploit deeper mineral deposits,” he said.
Clarke touted an increase to the lifetime capital gains exemption for owners of farming and fishing businesses, and $18.1 million over two years to promote competitiveness and trade opportunities in agriculture and agri-food.
He said seniors will benefit from changes to the administration of Registered Retirement Income Funds, helping them to preserve funds.
All parents with children under 18 will benefit from the enhanced Universal Childcare Benefit, Clarke said, with parents of kids up to 6 receiving as much as $1,920 per year and now $720 a year for each child ages 6 to 17.
Transfers
He said Saskatchewan will receive a record $1.5 billion in federal transfers, including nearly $1.1 billion through the Canada Health Transfer and $412 million through the Canada Social Transfer.
“This represents an increase of $409 million over the transfers received by Saskatchewan from the old Liberal government,” Clarke said, “who radically slashed transfer payments to our province – something our Conservative government will never do.”
Over on the opposition benches, Ashton, the NDP MP for Churchill, was disappointed with the budget.
“This budget does nothing to address the key challenges that northern Manitobans face,” Ashton said. “Instead of investing in health care, housing and economic diversification, this budget will give money to those that have the most already, and leave the rest behind. For Aboriginal communities, critical areas like education and housing are left largely unaddressed.”
Ashton accused the Conservatives of ignoring the middle class.
“The tax measures do little for the middle class and leave families paying for billions in tax breaks for big corporations and the wealthy few,” she said. “The billions in handouts to the wealthiest few are a significant risk to vital public services while doing nothing to reduce child poverty.”
Ashton said the Harper government has “missed their chance to make smart investments that create stable full-time jobs, actual childcare spaces and affordable housing.”
