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Budget Info Released: Canadians Will Owe Over $80 Billion

by Rob Walker | January 27, 2009 at 12:04 pm

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Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty entered parliament together just after 4pm est. on Tuesday, and Flaherty began speaking in the house shortly afterwards. As soon as finance Minister Jim Flaherty took to his feet at 4:07pm est, news organizations were allowed to show the details of the budget.

The NDP and Bloc Quebecois announced they would be voting against the budget immediately after it was announced, while the Liberals are waiting until tomorrow to discuss it.

The budget so far includes a stimulus package of $40 billion over 2 years, with provinces and cities expected to take up part of the share. This would make the stimulus to the economy about $52 billion over two years.

That will tally up to almost $85 billion in deficits over the next five years.

Canada will have to weather large deficits to “do what it takes to keep our economy moving,” including cutting taxes while boosting infrastructure and worker training, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in tabling the federal budget Tuesday.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff repeatedly stated he would wait until Wednesday to announce his verdict on the federal budget, which could spell an election if the parties vote against it. The NDP and Bloc Quebecois said they would vote against it because they had already lost faith and trust in the current Conservative government.

The NDP and Bloc had already indicated they would vote against the budget before seeing it, saying they had lost faith and trust in the government.

In a statement, NDP Leader Jack Layton said the budget will not adequately save and create jobs.

Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe criticized the budget for not including enough for pay equity, the environment, seniors, social housing or lower income families.

"Obviously, we will not support that budget," Duceppe told reporters.

"We've had a lot of information trickle out of the last couple of days," the CBC's Margo McDiarmid reported from Ottawa Tuesday as the capital awaited the official budget text. "We know there'll be about $13 billion of programs, including infrastructure programs.

"But new information has come out overnight on what also will be in the budget. We're going to hear that there will be permanent tax cuts for people who make under $80,000 — so, permanent broad-based tax cuts for the middle class we've heard the government talking about in the past — and also it plans to speed up corporate tax cuts."