Randy Hoback (file photo/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Federal budget

Federal budget a missed opportunity: Randy Hoback

Apr 7, 2022 | 5:42 PM

Sprinkling funding across too many areas can dilute the impact of dollars and that’s what MP Randy Hoback saw after a quick review of the federal budget today.

Hoback said the funding seems to be very diluted across a lot of areas and the budget has no cohesive plan.

“They’re spending a lot of money and they’re sprinkling it right across the board, but they seem to have no focus,” Hoback said.

He said when broken down to actual dollars, neither families nor seniors are getting any significant amount of money.

A key part of the Liberal budget – tabled today – is investment in housing, specifically affordable housing.

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The government says the National Housing Strategy will see over 91,000 new units built and will invest money to repair over 209,000 units.

Part of the plan is to give a refundable tax credit with a maximum value of $7,500 to encourage homeowners to build secondary suits for senior relatives or an adult with a disability.

The Rapid Housing Initiative will get another $1.5 billion in the next two years with the goal of creating 6,000 units. At least 25 per cent will be focused on women.

Another $4 billion over the next five years will create a new Housing Accelerator Fund targeted toward cities.

Buyers under the age of 40 will be able to save up to $40,000 in a dedicated, untaxed account to be used to buy a first home.

“I look at this, especially for first time home buyers, there’s a lot of schemes in place but we’re finding that schemes aren’t actually producing results,” said Hoback. “They’re doubling down on some of those programs that no one’s been using.”

A key initiative of the federal government has been the transition away from fossil fuels.

The budget provides for $1.7 billion over the next five years to extend incentives for people to buy zero-emission vehicles and over $500,000 million to help businesses buy medium and heavy-duty no emissions vehicles for fleet upgrades.

The budget documents mention funding – but not how much – to build a national network of charging stations.

The second largest investment this year comes in the form of creation of a national dental care program.

Families earning less than $90,000 annually will have certain dental services provided for children under 12, which expands to children under 18 next year and full implementation by 2025.

This has a budget of $5.3 billion.

Hoback says he will be taking a closer look to see what parts of the budget can benefit Prince Albert and area.

“They’re spending a lot of money on green-style programs so can we take some of the existing things that we’re doing in the Prince Albert region and riding and come into those programs and get some funding for some projects? That may be a possibility,” he said.

His main concern, without an in-depth look, is that the budget will be ineffective and specific dollars will be too small to guarantee the completion of any projects.

“It would be one of those things that are more tokenism than it’s actually serious dollars that would actually move a project ahead or not move a project ahead,” Hoback said.

Not spending enough in big enough chunks is counter-intuitive, he said.

“If you’re just giving people token amounts, are you actually doing anything? But you are committing our next generation to a debt that they’re going to have to pay back,” Hoback stated.

The budget does not look to be addressing spending in any way or doing anything to control inflation, he said.

“I would have liked to see controlled spending and get back to the things that government is supposed to do. Make sure we have our fiscal house in order,” said Hoback.

The 2022 budget also includes a promise to spend $8 billion over the next five years in the area of defence.

Part of that money will pay for a defence policy review which will include the size and capabilities of the Canadian forces.

About $252 million will be spent in the next five years for continental and Arctic defence capabilities and to “lay the groundwork for NORAD’s future.”

Canada will increase its commitment to NATO by 460 additional personnel and will make available another 3,400 people if needed. Money will also be spent on equipment and technology.

Planning is all good, said Hoback, if the projects happen.

“They left $1.2 billion on the table last year because they just couldn’t spend it. They couldn’t get it through the process of the treasury board to get it spent,” he said.

The amount of red tape needed to get approval has to be addressed, Hoback said.

“There’s lot of missed opportunities here. We’re spending a whole pile of money and at the end of the day, we’re going to look back and say where did it go?” he said.

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Susan.McNeil@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow