Federal workers, the CBC and the penny bore the brunt of a slimmed-down federal budget tabled in Ottawa last Thursday afternoon (March 29).
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told the House of Commons that his 2012 budget was geared towards "jobs, growth and long-term prosperity."
Flaherty touted Canada's healthy performance through the global economic crisis and reminded his colleagues of the tax cuts his government had introduced.
After making a blunt commitment to not raising taxes, Flaherty added, "we have no need for drastic cuts."
Flaherty was interrupted during his preamble by chants of, "Where are we in your budget? This is not our budget" from the opposition benches.
In a veiled swipe at his rivals, Flaherty said, "There are some who would raise taxes, increase government spending and shun new trade opportunities." This, he continued, would make social programs unsustainable and lead Canada down a similar path to crisis-wracked Greece.
Flaherty said the overall federal budget would be trimmed by two per cent. Some of these savings will be found by reducing government travel in favour of video-conferencing, releasing large documents in electronic form rather than on paper, and eliminating the penny, each of which costs about one and half cents to produce.
Quieting a rowdy house, Speaker Andrew Scheer quipped that he was "sure the minister appreciates hearing your two cents."
On more substantial spending issues, Flaherty pledged to leave provincial health and education transfers untouched, but said from 2023 to 2029, the government would gradually move Old Age Security eligibility from age 65 to 67. Starting in 2013, he added, workers can choose to work beyond age 65 and claim greater benefits when they do retire.
"Canadians are living longer and healthier," he said, "but there are fewer workers to replace them." While there were seven working Canadians for every pensioner in the 1970s, he said, soon there will be two.
Not mentioned in Flaherty's Com-mons speech were government plans to cut more than $300 million from the Department of Agriculture, a similar figure from the federal Department of Health, $191 million from Canadian Heritage - including $115 million from the CBC - and $225 million from the Canada Revenue Agency.
With the Afghan and Libyan missions winding down, the government also plans to lop $1.1 billion from the Department of National Defence.
Overall, the federal government plans to employ 19,200 fewer people over the next three years.
Flaherty moved quickly to Con-servatives' spending plans, which include extending tax breaks for small businesses that hire new workers, skills training programs, new infrastructure at the U.S. border, a renewed Coast Guard fleet and greater spending on industrial research and development. The finance minister also stressed the need for Canada to diversify its exports beyond the United States, with a special focus on emerging Asian markets.
"If we fail to act now this historic window of opportunity will close," he said.
The prime minister, Flaherty said, had signed several new trade agreements and was working on several more, including pacts with Thailand, Japan, the EU and India.
"It's not dramatic in the cuts that some of us had expected," said John Weston, MP for West Vancouver - Sunshine Coast - Sea to Sky Country. "It puts the focus firmly on growth, prosperity and Canadian families."
Weston said more than a third of the job losses will be through attrition, but said he didn't know how they will be distributed among federal agencies. The long-term nature of Flaherty's plan, he said, reflected the stability of a majority government that doesn't have its eye on an upcoming election.
One item in the budget with significant implications for B.C. is a plan to streamline environmental reviews and cap their timeframes at two years. This will apply retroactively to reviews already underway, including the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline. Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently complained that the project's review had been "hijacked" by out-of-province environment activists.
"We need to be more efficient working with our provincial counterparts," Weston said. "We need good, clear environmental standards and we need government to regulate them. What we don't need are unnecessary delays and duplication of effort. The mantra is 'one project, one review.' The most ardent environmental advocates and the most committed industrialists will have to get together to determine ways to extract our natural resources in an environmentally sustainable way."
Weston said a firm deadline will impose "a level of long-overdue accountability" on Environment Canada officials. He dismissed suggestions that the move is intended to limit public input.
"Two years is a generous period of time. Thumbs up or thumbs down, the decision gets made," he said.
