Randy Hoback. (File photo/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Budget critics

Prince Albert MP finds flaws in federal budget plan

Mar 21, 2019 | 12:01 PM

Short term rewards offered in Tuesday’s federal budget will be outweighed by the long term pain of taxes, according to Prince Albert’s Conservative member of Parliament.

Randy Hoback discussed the $22.8 billion in new spending.

“It’s money being spent to change the channel away from the SNC-Lavalin affair. [The government] was hoping the budget would detract peoples’ attention and they would forget about what actually has been happening here in Ottawa,” he said.

Hoback likened Tuesday’s budget to one presented by the Ontario government. He explained a lot of money was offered to a number of different groups, but the next year the government raised taxes, and power rates. In terms of what the the federal budget means for Prince Albert, Hoback said the doubling of the gas tax fund to $4.4 billion will help municipalities across the country.

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“Reality is though [Canadians] should get a top off at the front because they are going to pay a lot of carbon tax starting April 1,” he said.

The federal budget sets aside close to $4 billion over the coming years for supply-managed farmers in the dairy, egg and poultry sectors, who lost income as a result of trade deals Canada signed with Europe and the Pacific Rim. Hoback said compensation was announced by the previous Conservative government.

“That was there in the 2015 budget and the Liberals took it away and now they are just bringing it back so that’s not new money. This is just them playing politics in a year of an election,” Hoback said.

Tuesday’s budget was not all bad according to Hoback. He said the $65 million budgeted for new STARS air ambulance helicopters was a “good spend.”

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell