Special Budget Edition of Randy Hoback’s MP Report

 www.randyhobackmp.ca

This week, our Government delivered the federal Budget in the House of Commons. This Budget delivered many great proposals that stand to benefit all Canadians, especially Seniors, families, students and small businesses. Unfortunately, Jack Layton’s NDP has said it won’t support it, the Bloc Quebecois says there isn’t enough for Quebec and the Liberals said they will not support it. As a result, there is a very realistic chance the positive things in the Budget won’t see the light of day and we could be headed to an election very soon.

I’m still hopeful that Jack Layton’s NDP and the Ignatieff Liberals will come to their senses and pass important budget items. If not, you and I are headed into a federal election that will cost over $300 million of your money and which is expected to change nothing. As a steward of your hard-earned tax dollars, I am truly disappointed and at a loss to explain how the Opposition parties are willing to spend over $300 million to change nothing. If they do initiate a federal election, I’ll be awaiting their explanation and justification as much as you.

If the NDP, Bloc Quebecois and Liberals drop their opposition to our Budget, here is what you can expect to see if our Budget is passed.

The Next Phase of Canada's Economic Action Plan

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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 recovery remains fragile and too many Canadians are still looking for work.

* 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 is in among the strongest fiscal positions of the world's advanced economies.

Supporting Rural-Canada

· 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.

· 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.

· Extending the ecoENERGYRetrofit – Homes Program: to help families lower their heating and electricity bills by making their homes more energy-efficient.

· Strengthening Canada's Public Infrastructure: including completing Canada's highway from coast to coast to coast.

Supporting Families

Our Conservative Government believes in keeping families strong. That's, 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 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.

Supporting Seniors

Our Conservative Government recognizes that Canada's seniors have built and continue to make our country great. That's 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 GIS: 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, and expand awareness 'of elder abuse.

• Extending the Targeted Initiative for Older Workers: an additional $50 million to extend the Initiative.

• Eliminating the Mandatory Retirement Age for Federally-Regulated Employees: we're 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're also working to introduce the new Pooled Registered Pension Plan to better help older workers save and build their retirement income.

Investing in Innovation, Education and Training

· 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.

Preserving Canada's Fiscal Advantage

In Budget 2010, we set out a 3-point plan to return to budget balance by winding down the temporary stimulus by 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.

Supporting Job Creation

· Extending the Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance: to help manufacturers and processors make new investments in machinery and equipment.

· Enhancing and Extending Programs to Help Businesses Keep Workers: the Work Sharing program, the Wage Earner Protection Program and the Targeted Initiative for Older Workers.

· Renewing Programs to Help Unemployed Workers: Best 14 Weeks and working while on EI claim pilot projects.

· Hiring Credit for Small Business: providing a one-time credit of up to $1,000 to encourage additional hiring.

· Supporting Youth Entrepreneurs: $20 million to enable the Canadian Youth Business Foundation to continue to help young entrepreneurs succeed.

· Reducing Red Tape: upgrading the BizPal service and further consulting Canadians through the Red Tape Reduction Commission.

· Supporting Economic Sectors: hundreds of millions of dollars in support for innovation, investment and market diversification in the agriculture, energy, mining, manufacturing, tourism and forestry sectors.

· Investing in Clean Energy Technology and Innovation

· Legislating Permanent Gas Tax Funding for Municipalities: putting into law the permanent annual investment of $2 billion in gas tax funding for cities and towns to support infrastructure priorities.

KEEPING TAXES LOW

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 NDP's 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 NDP’s high-tax plan will kill jobs, stall our fragile economic recovery and set families back. According to experts, the Liberal tax-hike agenda would kill at least 400,000 jobs. Our Conservative government is keeping taxes low.

• We've cut taxes over 120 times since 2006, reducing the overall tax burden to its lowest level in nearly 50 years.

• We removed nearly 1 million low-income families, individuals and seniors from the tax rolls.

We've cut taxes in every way government collects them: we 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 is over $3,000 annually.

The Importance of Attracting Doctors, Nurses and Nurse Practitioners to Rural Canada

This afternoon, I had the opportunity to rise in the House of Commons during Question Period to ask Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq about Budget 2011’s plan to attract doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners to rural Canada.

You can view my question and Minister Aglukkaq’s response on my Youtube Channel by clicking on the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFu0S56gnCs&feature=channel_video_title