(Submitted photo/Randy Hoback)

By Derek Craddock

BUDGET REACTION

‘A lot of spending,’ MP Hoback not happy with Liberals’ federal budget

Mar 30, 2023 | 11:00 AM

The MP for Prince Albert is not impressed with the federal budget as his Conservative party plans to vote against it.

Randy Hoback spoke about the fiscal plan unveiled Tuesday by the federal government which includes, among other things, increased funding for health care, and a top-up to the GST rebate to help with grocery costs.

Despite the Liberals touting it as a budget for all Canadians, Hoback and his Tory counterparts are worried about one key detail.

“A lot of spending. A $40 billion deficit on top of what we’ve had the last few years,” he said. “Spending that really does not bring value back to Canadians. Spending that you can’t put your finger on to see exactly what you built with it.”

The budget will feature almost $60 billion in new spending over the next five years, with $8.3 billion to be spent this fiscal year.

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A major component of the plan is over $80 billion in tax credits for clean energy and electricity to 2035.

As for the so-called grocery rebate, the Liberals plan to provide a one-time payment of $234 for a single person with no children, $467 for a couple with two children and $225 for a senior citizen.

Hoback did not want to minimize the impact of those single payments as Canadians and members of his riding are feeling the pinch of high food prices. However, he doesn’t believe it helps in the long run.

“It’s more of a gesture at best,” he said. “In this case, it doesn’t do a lot to help your grocery bill throughout the year if it’s a one-time payment.”

He added overall, Canadians will be paying for the Liberals’ spending at one point in their lives.

“You might see a benefit here but you’re going to pay a lot more taxes in order to get it either now or down the road,” he said. “It’s a shell game taking money out of your pockets and pretending to give it back to you in different ways.”

So what would Hoback and the Conservatives like to have seen in the plan? The Tories and leader Pierre Poilievre have continuously called on the government to lower taxes and scrap the hike on the carbon tax which comes into effect on Saturday.

He also said there was nothing in the budget to help those who dream of owning a home.

“We have young people that want to buy a house and they can’t afford a house, their rent is going up and the requirement to get a mortgage is tougher.”

Another item, which was briefly featured in the budget has to do with the transfer of a business or farm to the next generation. Hoback noted a Bill, adopted in June 2021, once made it easier to move those assets, but that is likely to change.

“They’ve (Liberals) made a very prescriptive process of how you go about doing that. A lot of people that are in that situation now are going to have to do something very quick if they’re looking at transferring their assets from Mom and Dad to Son and Daughter to avoid paying a huge transfer tax.”

Those changes have only been proposed in the budget and there is no clear timeline as to when they could come into effect.

–With files from The Canadian Press