What They Are Saying About The Budget!

The 2010 budget has been released and is now being debated in the House of Commons.  Let's find out what is being said about this by a wide variety of Canadians from all walks of life.                                                                                        

  

                                                                                                                                                                          

-NDP Leader Jack Layton addresses the House about the 2010 budget, March 5, 2010                                                   

“Recalibration is a myth.  When you prorogue for months saying it’s to ‘recalibrate,’ you need to come back with bold new ideas and they didn’t do that."                                                                                                      

– Brant New Democrat Candidate Marc Laferriere from the Brant News, March 4, 2010

“In the end all CARP members got from this budget are some nice words and the promise of more consultation.”

– Susan Eng, Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP), March 4, 2010

“There are over 1.5 million Canadians currently out of work. They deserve a government plan that involves more than massive tax cuts and wishful thinking.”

– Paul Moist, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, March 4, 2010

“Let’s remember that it was the financial sector that caused the meltdown and the resulting economic crisis. Bay Street and Wall Street made billions of dollars for themselves at our expense. We paid for their excesses through job losses, high unemployment, devastated communities and shattered families. To add insult to injury, we paid for their excesses twice – first with our savings and pension plans and the second time with taxpayer bailouts.”

– Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, March 4, 2010

“Canada’s most vulnerable populations have been handed an empty envelope in this budget.  The glaring gap between the rich and the poor will likely widen from the federal government’s choice to give emphasis only to the business economy while ignoring social cohesion and social policy.  Budget 2010 neither recognizes nor addresses the economic cost of poverty.  From the perspective of the social work profession, the budget is largely an empty envelope."

– Darlene MacDonald, President of the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW).

“The budget does allow employment insurance premiums – what Conservatives previously called ‘payroll taxes’ – to begin to rise at the end of 2010, and counts on a $5-$16 increase in the Air Travellers Security Charge on round-trip air travel – what Conservatives have previously called ‘the air tax’.”

– Tonda MacCharles, Toronto Star, March 4, 2010

“Hidden in today’s budget is the government’s plan to significantly raise employment insurance rates – which means employers will be paying a much higher price to create new jobs...  Higher EI premiums will cost the restaurant and foodservice industry nearly $30 million a year starting in 2011.”

– Garth Whyte, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA) President and CEO, March 4, 2010

“This deeply disappointing budget offers virtually nothing to create clean energy jobs or live up to our climate change commitments…Oil sands development is not mentioned a single time in the entire 451-page budget.”

– Tim Weis, Director of the Pembina Institute’s Renewable Energy and Efficiency Program, March 4, 2010

“Chronic underfunding of Canada’s post-secondary education system has resulted in skyrocketing tuition fees and record high levels of student debt. With a record number of Canadians enrolled in college or university, this budget does nothing to help students and their families afford an education.”

- Katherine Giroux-Bougard, National Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students, March 4, 2010

“The freeze in foreign aid for subsequent years means Harper has reneged on his promise to bring our aid up to the average for donor nations.”

– Oxfam Canada, March 4, 2010

"Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague speaking about infrastructure, buildings, heritage and the need for speed. I am particularly concerned about the fact that heritage dollars could be used not just to build infrastructure but to tear infrastructure down. For example, the historic downtown in Brantford, which obviously needs revitalization, but since the government has no program for revitalizing heritage buildings we have the city of Brantford looking for $1.38 million to tear down 41 historic buildings, the vast majority of which pre-date Confederation. Therefore we have the speed to get the money out, yet no due diligence on the fact that buildings of historical significance in southern Ontario are going to be sent to the landfill pile. In this review of stimulus projects is there any concern at all for maintaining historically significant buildings, for maintaining Canadian heritage and for working with municipalities to actually revitalize historic downtowns rather than just sending in a wrecking ball because they have no other options?"

– NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins—James Bay) in The House to Conservative MP Rona Ambrose, March 10, 2010