Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound Conservative MP Alex Ruff says the federal liberal government’s budget is about money for everyone, without a plan on how to repay it.
Ruff congratulates Freeland on being the very first female Finance Minister to table a budget, “Kudos to her, and I think that’s a great role model that she’s established for women and girls across our great nation,” says Ruff.
But, he adds, this budget is more about, “How do we buy votes, versus how do we actually get the economy roaring again and get proper economic recovery?”
Federal Liberal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland presented the minority government’s proposed budget Monday which outlined about $101 billion in spending over three years with $30 billion proposed for a national childcare system. Freeland told the House of Commons Monday, the original projected deficit for 2020-21 $381.6 billion is now more like $354.2 billion.
But Ruff says, the document still comes up short, “There’s no fiscal anchor to it. Even when asked in the house (Monday) and despite being told to come up with a new fiscal anchor by the Prime Minister in the mandate letter, there is no fiscal anchor referred to in the document that I can find,” says Ruff.
Freeland’s Finance Ministry maintains the fiscal anchor is reducing federal debt as a share of the economy, projecting a declining debt to GDP ratio falling to 49.2 per cent by 2025-26 and the deficit reaching 1.1 per cent of GDP in the same year.
Ruff doesn’t see the debt to GDP ratio as a sufficient fiscal anchor. He says, “There are no details within the budget itself on how they intend to pay for this other than a promise of great economic growth. That’s just what they’re forecasting versus actually having a plan.”
“I think they’re very dependent upon low interest rates,” says Ruff, who points out Mark Carney, former Bank of Canada Governor, later Bank of England Governor, and recent speaker at the Liberal Convention, has said in the past, ‘Do not think that low interest rates are here for the long-term.’ Ruff says, “You can’t build your economic plan based upon hoping interest rates are going to stay low, when a lot of the leading economists are indicating there are already signs that interest rates are going to start to climb again.”
Ruff says a few things in the budget did catch his interest, noting, “They have provided additional support for agriculture specifically seasonal ag workers and temporary foreign workers, something us in the Conservative Party have been calling for, for months now in order to keep our food security viable and moving forward and so there’s some direct support in the short term to help our farmers that way,” Ruff adds, “That’s a positive that they’ve listened to what we’ve been telling them in opposition.”
He adds, “They’ve announced some additional funding for tourism which I think, again is going to be crucial especially to our area. Provided they can get the access to that.”
Ruff notes the allocation of a proposed additional billion dollars for universal broadband internet could be improved upon, “The critique that I’ve been hearing back from especially small internet service providers is the problem with the UBF (Universal Broadband Fund) is that they can’t access it. It’s very advantageous for the big ISPs (Internet Service Providers) not necessarily the ISPs to actually compete and get access to that funding.”
He says, “It would have been way better, I think to see some sort of announcement to the more regional broadband initiatives like SWIFT locally (Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology).
“It’s a project that’s completely non-partisan and fair and shows great collaboration between all three levels of government and the private industry and it gets out there,” adding, “It’s focused on those areas where we really need it.” Ruff feels the federal government’s Universal Broadband Fund gives service providers money to go where they had already intended to go anyway based on profitability, “To me, any government funding should be focused on those areas where the business model isn’t sustainable yet.”
In a time of record home prices, Ruff also notes, he would have liked to have seen meaningful support for first time home buyers, “It’s getting tougher and tougher and I don’t see anything in there that’s going to make that more realistic,” says Ruff.
Ruff says there could be some issues with the proposed $30 billion for a national childcare program, “This is the ninth time the liberals have promised they’re going to do something on this. So it will be fascinating to see if they actually do deliver this time around.”
He says he’s hearing the federal government didn’t collaborate with, or discuss the matter with any of the provinces, “Right now, childcare is completely under Provincial jurisdiction. I think you’re going to see a lot of potential push back from some of the provinces that this is coming in from the federal level versus just providing additional support to the provinces.”
“It will be interesting to see, once we get into the details, if they actually propose to deliver this, and how they intend to collaborate with the provinces. I’m not a big fan of the ‘Ottawa knows best’ approach that seems to be the party line coming from the federal government right now.”
Meanwhile, the Conservative Party will propose amendments to the budget. The Bloc Quebecois has proposed an increase in health transfers to the provinces and more money for seniors 65 and up.