Harper government commitments on income-splitting, tax-free savings accounts delayed, as they depend on a balanced budget
OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) slammed today’s economic and fiscal update by federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty as it abandoned the Conservatives’ 2011 election promise to balance the budget in 2014-15. The CTF pointed out that the Tories are set to break their promise, despite record tax revenues this year.
“Mr. Flaherty has kicked the can down the road for the second year in a row,” said CTF Federal Director Gregory Thomas. “He’s becoming an expert at ‘kick the can.’
“In last year’s election, Stephen Harper promised Canadians a balanced budget in 2014-15, followed by major tax relief for Canadians, including income splitting and doubling the yearly Tax-Free Savings Account contribution limit to $10,000. Mr. Flaherty is breaking the Prime Minister’s most important election promise,” Thomas continued.
The finance minister raised his deficit forecast for this year to $26 billion; up from $21.1 billion. Further, the government’s 2013-14 deficit has been increased to $16.5 billion; up from $10.2 billion. Sadly, the Tories have no balanced budget in sight until 2016-17.
Thomas called on government MPs and ministers to honour their election promise and recommit to balancing the budget during their current mandate.
“The finance minister wants Canadians to believe that the U.S. government’s fiscal cliff and the crisis in the Eurozone are both a big surprise,” said Thomas. “It’s not a big surprise – we knew the U.S. had a huge deficit during last year’s federal election, and we also knew Europe was a mess. It’s time for Mr. Flaherty to take responsibility for his own budget and stop blaming others.”
“The CTF National Debt Clock is now moving up at a rate of $863 a minute, up from $669 a minute,” said Thomas. “Canadians can’t afford this kind of runaway borrowing. That’s why they voted for a balanced budget last year, not business-as-usual pork-barreling and bigger deficits.”
Gregory Thomas, CTF Federal & Ontario Director
