Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is currently in Swift Current as part of a country-wide series of roundtable discussions concerning Budget 2010.
Flaherty is also in Swift Current to speak at an evening fundraising banquet for Cypress Hills Grasslands MP David Anderson.
“It’s important that I hear the perspective of people from rural Canada, from smaller municipalities in Canada as well. I look forward to hearing that today,” Flaherty said shortly before beginning his afternoon session.
He also met with a group of businesspeople during a similar round table discussion in St. Boniface.
“In Manitoba yesterday I heard some concerns about credit issues, about financing issues, particularly for smaller business. Some concern about getting infrastructure money flowing and spent during this calendar year. And some other concerns. Some good ideas too about where we could do more.”
He highlighted that the 2010 budget will focus on finalizing the financial stimulation efforts of Canada’s Economic Action Plan, but spending priorities are certainly under the microscope.
“I think one of the differences is that there will be no new large spending programs. Obviously the budget last year was a massive spending program, we felt it was necessary to protect Canadian jobs and to stimulate the Canadian economy given the lack of private demand during the recession. That’s worked relatively well in the Canadian context, as we are going to complete the program, which is another year,” he said. “At the same time, and I heard a fair amount of this yesterday in St. Boniface, there’s a desire that we start to plan how we’re going to get to a balanced budget situation.”
While he did not concede that spending cuts are on the way, the federal government does not want to make harmful cuts which would slow economic recovery across the country.
“We’re not going to increase taxes and we’re not going to cut back on transfer payments to the provinces, they involve health and education and social services. That was done in the 1990s and it really hurt the provinces,” Flaherty said. “We’re not going to cut back transfers to individuals, to pensioners to persons with disabilities, other Canadians. So we’re left with a large amount of programs spending, about $100 million, that is growing at 3.3 per cent on average, and if we have to find savings on that side that’s where we’ll look.”
Flaherty noted that finalizing their Economic Action Plan funding, which will flow during the first half of the year, comes at an important time.
“We are concerned about unemployment, 8.5 per cent unemployment in Canada, that’s a lot of Canadians out of work, a lot of families affected. So we want to make sure that we continue to create and preserve those kinds of jobs.”
