The Member of Parliament for Provencher is calling this week's federal Liberal budget a missed opportunity.
Ted Falk says the Liberals had a chance to demonstrate that they understand government finances.
"They've indicated in previous comments that they've made that there needs to be now some fiscal restraint," notes Falk. "That certainly was not demonstrated in the budget."
Falk says this week was also an opportunity for the Liberals to show Canadians that they are listening and that after two and a half years of infusing money into the economy that they will tighten their belt on spending. Yet, he says the opposite happened with a $43 billion deficit budget that will increase our national debt, which already sits at over $1.1 trillion.
Falk says that according to government's five-year projection, Canada will be paying $50 billion per year just on debt interest. He notes that is more than what Canada spends on our military on an annual basis.
At a time when inflation and economic challenges are almost part of our daily vocabulary, Falk says this budget did nothing to address that. In fact, he says a $43 billion deficit budget will only further exacerbate inflation and make higher interest rates something we will be dealing with for a longer period of time.
When asked if he found anything positive in this week's budget, Falk paused briefly, then stated, "no."
Falk says he had thought the Liberals would take the opportunity to address Bill C-234 as part of their budget. This is the bill that would remove the carbon tax for farmers for such things as fuel for grain drying or for heating and cooling of livestock facilities. Rather, it came up for third and final reading Wednesday afternoon, where MPs voted in favour of Bill C-234.
"I thought that was something that the Liberals would quickly slide into their budget, which they could have and taken the credit for, but they didn't do it," notes Falk. "Another missed opportunity for the Liberals, they could have shown that it actually makes sense to remove the carbon tax on all agricultural activities, which would in essence reduce food costs, and that's a major concern that we have, is reducing the cost of food."
Falk says over the last couple of months, the Conservatives have lobbied hard for the Liberals to at least pause their increases on the carbon tax. The Conservatives also asked the Liberals to step back from increasing payroll taxes, like CPP and EI. He notes that instead, the Liberals decided to tax Canadians even further on their paychecks. Falk says one of the conditions to support the budget, was that the Conservatives wanted no new taxes, but, this coming Saturday, the Liberals plan to increase the carbon tax yet again.
Not only does Falk say that this budget is a missed opportunity, but he also refers to it as an "NDP budget," noting the New Democrats are thrilled that some of their requests, such as the increase to the dental contribution, made it into the budget.
Meanwhile, Falk says the budget proposes a grocery rebate of about $234 for a single adult. According to Falk, this rebate is only for those who qualify for a GST rebate.
"That $234 isn't anywhere close to the $400 to $500 that the Parliamentary Budget Officer says that the carbon tax actually costs every single Canadian," says Falk. "So there again, it's kind of smoke and mirrors. They want to give you a treat with one hand, but they are actually taking away more than they are giving you."