Prologue: I used to write about Budgets all the time. This is the 2009 Federal Budget, a time when Canada was in a Financial Pickle.
I will be locked in a building, but not to study the budget. I will leave that to Larry MacDonald. He is actually going to be locked away with the press corps for that very reason. I am taking an exam tomorrow, and my job search continues. Larry gets to pour over the minutia of the budget. He will do this along with a bunch of other “sweaty journalists.” This sounds like more fun than I am going to have.
Budget Leaks Already?
Not from any of my sources, but the regular financial press is predicting the following:
- A $64 Billion deficit running for the next two years, which will effectively obliterate the surpluses from the past 4 or 5 years, but I guess we need to do this (maybe).
- $2 billion for social housing, which is good if it makes it into the right hands
- $1.5 billion for job retraining which is important given we have an entire auto industry to retrain
- Billions more in aid to farmers, which is good, considering we need food as well.
- $7 billion on new infrastructure projects, which hopefully will use the correct concrete and not just do "slap dash" jobs to create as much infrastructure in a short time (we are kind of paying for those decisions in the 60's now).
- Talk of tax credits as well, but very vague statements about those so far, so stay tuned there.
NDP Already Hate the Budget
I always am concerned when I hear someone say they "hate" something they haven't even heard. Jack "where did my coalition go" Layton has said that the NDP will vote against the budget. If the Liberals want to topple the government, they don't have to do too much. They only need to get the Bloc Quebecois to come on side. That will be it.
Is it a good thing to have another election in such troubled times, or have a coalition take over? My opinion says no, but I also have been wrong before too.
"Thin" Throne Speech
Four pages does seem a little "thin" on content, but then again, we already have had one throne speech a while ago, so maybe there wasn't much new to add to what was previously said?
Other Budgets Federal and Ontario Provincial
- Ontario Budget 2007 Highlights? I certainly have written about many different budgets, this is for the Ontario Provincial 2007 budget.
- Budget Day 2009 is Here, what to do in a financial poop storm? The actual budget discussions for 2009 can be found here.
- Ontario Budget 2015 M’eh… The Ontario Budget 2015 was relatively meagre and simple, however, it didn’t really appease any of the pundits either.
- Budget 2015 What’s In It For Me ? The federal budget 2015 Federal had some things for everyone, but not a great deal for anyone specifically. Typical budget. Except the TFSA limit was moved to $10,000 !
