This Budget, as tabled in the House of Commons, delivered many great proposals that stand to benefit all Canadians, especially seniors, families, students and small businesses. Unfortunately, the Liberals would not support this Budget; the NDP would not support this budget; and the Bloc Quebecois said there was not enough for Quebec in this Budget. As a result, the very positive things contained in the Budget will not come into effect now until after the federal election when the Conservative Party of Canada forms a majority government. This wasteful election was forced on Canadians by the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc costing the Canadian Taxpayers $300 million.
With $60 billion in targeted stimulus, Canada's Economic Action Plan has worked in protecting Canada from the worst of the global recession, but the global economic recovery remains fragile.
- Canada has had six straight quarters of economic growth.
- Canada has created 480,000 net new jobs since July 2009 (over 70% of them full-time).
- Canada has one of the strongest fiscal positions of the world's advanced economies.
- The World Economic Forum has ranked Canada’s banking system the soundest in the world for three straight years.
1: Supporting Job Creation
Our Conservative Government believes in keeping families strong. That is, why the Next Phase of Canada's Economic Action Plan introduces several key measures to help Canadian families, including:
- A new Children's Arts Tax Credit: a 15-per-cent non-refundable tax credit on up to $500 in eligible fees for programs associated with children's artistic, cultural, recreational, and developmental activities.
- A new Family Caregiver Tax Credit: a 15-per-cent non-refundable tax credit in the amount of $2,000 for caregivers of all types of infirm dependent relatives, including, for the first time, spouses, common-law partners, and minor children.
- Enhanced Medical Expense Tax Credit: removing the $10,000 limit on the amount of eligible medical expenses that can be claimed on behalf of a financially-dependent relative.
- Extending the ecoEnergy Retrofit – Homes Program: to help families lower their heating and electricity bills by making their house more energy-efficient.
- Helping Students: allowing full-time students to earn more money without affecting their loans (doubling in-study exemption to $100/wk) and giving them a tax break on certification fees.
- Volunteer Firefighters Tax Credit: Tax relief for volunteer firefighters who bravely serve their communities.
- Youth Crime Prevention: $20 million to promote programs that help youth resist or exit gangs.
- Student loan Forgiveness for Doctors and Nurses Working in Rural and Remote Areas: Forgiving a portion of the federal component of Canada Student Loans for new doctors and nurses practising in under-served rural and remote communities.
- Strengthening Canada’s Public Infrastructure: Including completing Canada’s highway from coast to coast to coast.
Our Conservative Government recognizes that Canada's seniors have built and continue to make our country great. That is why the Next Phase of Canada's Economic Action Plan introduces new measures to improve the quality of life and expand opportunities for Canadian seniors, including:
- Enhancing the Guaranteed Income Supplement: Eligible low-income seniors will receive additional annual benefits of up to $600 for single seniors and $840 for couples. This will help more than 680,000 seniors across Canada.
- Enhancing the New Horizons for Seniors Program: an additional $10 million to promote volunteerism, mentorship and the social participation of seniors.
- Extending the Targeted Initiative for Older Workers: An additional $50 million to extend this initiative.
- Eliminating the Mandatory Retirement Age for Federally-Regulated Employees: We are giving seniors who want to remain active in the workforce the freedom to make that choice by eliminating the mandatory retirement age for federally-regulated employees, unless there is an occupational requirement.
- Extending the ecoEnergy Retrofit program: to help families lower their heating and electricity bills by making their houses more energy efficient.
- We are also working to introduce the new Pooled Registered Pension Plan to better help older workers save and build their retirement income.
- Investing hundreds of millions of dollars for R&D, higher education and new technologies (including clean energy).
- Extending Tax Relief for Skills Certification Exams: making all occupational, trade and professional exam fees eligible for tax relief through the Tuition Tax Credit.
- Doubling the In-Study Income Exemption: from $50 per week to $100 per week, benefiting over 100,000 students by allowing them to work more without negatively affecting their loans.
Budget 2010 set out a 3-point plan to return to budget balance by winding down the temporary stimulus, putting in place targeted spending restraint measures, and reviewing government administrative and overhead costs. This year, we're building on that plan by delivering savings from the 2010 strategic reviews, closing tax loopholes, and launching a one-year government-wide Strategic and Operating Review. We remain on track to balance the budget by 2015-16 as Canadians have asked us to do.
Our Conservative Government believes in low taxes, and leaving more money where it belongs - in the pockets of hard-working Canadian families and job-creating businesses. The Liberals' high-tax agenda to increase the GST, impose a new carbon tax, and implement a new $6 billion tax hike on job-creating businesses means less money in taxpayer's pockets - and more money for big government programs in Ottawa. The Liberal high-tax plan will kill jobs, stall our fragile economic recovery and set families back.
Our Conservative Government is keeping taxes low.
since 2006, reducing the overall tax burden to its lowest level in nearly 50 years.
We have cut taxes in every way the government collects them: We have cut personal taxes, consumption taxes, business taxes, excise taxes and much more. This includes:
- Cutting the lowest personal income tax rate to 15%.
- Increasing the amount Canadians can earn tax free.
- Providing seniors with pension income splitting.
- Reducing the GST from 7% to 6% to 5%, putting nearly $1,000 back in the pockets of an average family.
- Introducing the Children's Fitness Tax Credit.
- Bringing in the landmark Tax Free Savings Account - the most important personal savings vehicle since RRSPs.
- Reducing the small business tax rate from 12% to 11%
- Lowering business taxes to 15% by 2012, as passed in Parliament in 2007.
- Due to our Conservative Government's low-tax plan, total savings for a typical Canadian family amount to over $3,000 annually.
What do you think? Is the Government on track with Budget 2011 – The next phase of Canada’s Economic Action Plan? Are we doing enough to support job creation? Are we doing enough to support families, seniors and communities? Re-elect Brent Rathgeber on May 2nd.
