Federal Budget : Why not approach BC ?

Photo Agence QMI, MATTHEW USHERWOOD

Guillaume Hébert

Monday, February 26, 2018 12:15

UPDATE
Monday, February 26, 2018 12:25

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Tomorrow, the minister of Finance of Canada Bill Morneau will table his third budget. The expectations are low. However, following the tabling of his first budget, the expectation was immense. This is the second budget in 2017 and early show at what point in the bold progressive of the Trudeau government is confined in a sphere, that of public relations. However, it is possible to move from words to deeds. Evidence : the budget adopted last Tuesday in British Columbia.

The breeze of Victoria

It is a new worthy of interest. In British Columbia, the new democrat government and its ally, the green Party, have adopted a budget significantly progressive. It was believed that the model was discontinued. Maybe is this a way forward ?

The government has laid first the foundations of the taxation of land progressive by imposing a tax on speculation that would have to pay the owners who don’t pay their taxes in British Columbia. Combined with two other taxes, which include properties that are worth more than $ 3 million and the foreign buyers, these measures will yield about half a billion dollars.

Always to meet the needs in terms of housing, the new budget also announced the construction of 34 000 units affordable, an expenditure of$ 1.3 billion. The government also puts$ 450 Million available to the institutions of post-secondary education to finance housing projects of the students.

The flagship measure is the establishment of a child care program to the public. It is a policy of large-scale, because with the exception of the network of CPE in Québec, it does not exist in Canada and the parents have to pay large sums to keep their children. The program will cost a billion and will provide access to public daycare to 86,000 families. The ndp government, however, has not honored its promise to offer tickets at $10.

The tax on the salary mass of the companies has been enhanced for large companies and eliminated for SMES. A surtax is imposed on luxury vehicle worth more than $125,000

Is this to say that British Columbia has embarked on an orgy of spending ? No, because the level of public spending in this province will remain, by 2020, below the average level that prevailed under the previous government since 2000.

The neutrality of Morneau

During this time, in Ottawa, the federal government is in the neutral position.

As soon as the first budget Morneau, despite the soaring discourse of the new government, my colleague, Evelyne was noted that the announcements were often promises of ” consultation “. This was forty times in the budget documentation. The maneuver seems to have worked, since the results obtained by the Trudeau government were a thousand miles from the audacity that had the Liberals when they have won the last election.

The budget also made several announcements to ” long-term “. For example, organizations that are calling for social housing pointed out that among the big announcements of the Trudeau government in this area, 70 % of the expenditure promised to be realized only in a possible second mandate.

More widely, the Bank of Canada’s infrastructure (BIC), whose activities remain marked by a high opacity, was not activated. The second budget Morneau had failed to respond to concerns in respect of a subordination of canadian infrastructure to the interest of private funders.

One of the few records on which the Trudeau government acted, the tax reforms aiming to put an end to certain privileges indus, was largely decomposed before they are adopted. They do not relate to the final$ 250 Million to the treasury (on a budget of 329 G$), of which almost half was immediately offered to SMES in the form of tax cuts.

More significantly still, rather than fight the tax evasion, the Trudeau government and, in particular, its minister of canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly are on track to make history for the aplaventrisme that they have shown vis-à-vis mncs in e-commerce and information that are true “monopolies of transnational” and disregard the tax laws of the States.

The alternative budget is to write everything down

The progressive nature of a political project does not have to be limited to its Polish. The human solidarity which you can actually characterize the essence of a budget. And this is what the “federal Budget alternative” written year after year by the canadian Centre for policy alternatives (CCPA).

The federal government could apply this budget and in doing so would be to once the party of the majority rather than that of elites, liberal or conservative. The CCPA calculates that the measures contained in the current edition of the federal Budget alternative would quickly shoot 600 000 people out of poverty, to make effective a genuine economic transition, as well as to break with the colonial logic imposed on the indigenous peoples and the discrimination suffered by women on the labour market.

This avenue budget would also make the tax system more progressive and, therefore, would allow families to increase their disposable income and access to social programs. The stimulation of the economic activity would create, or would, maintain 600,000 jobs and higher State revenues of$10 billion.

To know all the details of the federal Budget alternative, here it is.