The proposed federal budget is getting a B plus from a local accountant and a shake of the head from a local MP.
Don Carson, with Canada’s Chartered Accountants, said he’s optimistic the government’s proposed budget will lighten the $50 billion deficit and help Northwestern Ontario. But given Canada’s relatively small role in the global economy, Northwestern Ontario’s fate lies with U.S. consumption.
"I guess we just have to cross our fingers that a lot of the projections and assumptions that have been used will in fact pan out or in fact things will turn out better than they are because we’re digging ourselves a pretty big hill of debt," Carson said. "It can be done we just have to hope that external factors don’t cause the economy to go into a tangent."
With the government’s commitment to continue stimulus spending to the tune of $19 billion, Carson said the region will also get a leg up with Employment Insurance and research and development dollars filtered through Lakehead University.
"It’s pretty much a stay the course budget," Carson said. "There’s a lot of money continuing to go into the economy."
MP Greg Rickford, Conservative Kenora, said the budget is a continuation of last year’s "Canada Economic Plan" budget. He said through stimulus spending, Northwestern Ontario has already benefited from the first year of the two-year plan and will continue to do so.
"Some of these are extensions obviously it’s important to keep commitments that you made last year," Rickford said. " The emphasis is personal income tax relief…protecting and creating jobs and building on infrastructure programs from last year."
Rickford said new initiatives such as the $100 million green transformation program for forestry will finally correct a "structural deficit" in Northwestern Ontario’s forestry sector. Lowering the corporate tax rate, with a pledge to have the lowest rate among G7 nations by 2012, will help mining and forestry companies in the region to be more competitive Rickford said. And the proposed tariff-free zone for Canada’s manufacturing sector will help those regional industries as well he added.
"The bottom line is that we want to provide corporations with the opportunity to be more flexible and be more responsive to a changing economy as we emerge from this recession," said Rickford. "Tax relief is an important part of making it easy for them to invest in growth and expansion."
But MP Bruce Hyer, NDP Superior-North, said the budget offers very little for Northwestern Ontario. For Hyer, who won’t vote for the budget in its current form, the budget does nothing to help Northern industry and hurts the average Canadian.
"In its present form it’s a bad budget. It fails to create jobs, it fails forestry in Northwestern Ontario," said Hyer. "It’s a huge tax shift from big oil. Big banks, big insurance companies to average Canadians."
For Hyer, the Conservative government is "spending" recklessly by lowering the corporate tax rate. As for the green transformation program for forestry, he said such a tiny amount of funding isn’t enough and energy renewal was never the issue for forestry in Northwestern Ontario.
"We need loan guarantees. We need drastic action for the forest industry," Hyer said.
Hyer said he’ll be working hard with the Conservative and Liberal parties to change the budget before he can vote for it.
