Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MP Jamie Schmale says he’s disappointed in the newly-tabled federal budget.
The Liberals touted Tuesday’s budget, which includes $43-billion of new spending, as one to help low-income or otherwise vulnerable Canadians. Schmale says he would have liked to see seniors and people with disabilities included in the dental care program, but does credit the feds for the GST “grocery rebate.”
“It’s basically a rebate given to individual families who are hurting right now, and that’s a lot,” says Schmale. “But at the end of the day, while all of this help is kind of appreciated, most of it’s a one-off, and doesn’t actually address the long-term structural deficit that we seem to have built into the federal government. You can only borrow, tax, or print for so long before you debauch the economy, and this is a path that we seem to be on.”
According to Schmale, the $40.1-billion deficit projected for 2023-24 is “extremely concerning.”
“Most economists, most banks, are predicting a slowdown in the economy, and when you start to take away some of your fiscal capacity to respond to the crisis that comes up each and every day with this government, there leaves little wiggle room,” says Schmale. “When Canadians are going to need help, their government isn’t going to have the ability to do that, so that’s what I’m most concerned about.”
At a local level, he says the carbon tax continues to impact the agriculture sector, noting that last year’s harvest was the most expensive in decades.
“This is extremely concerning when people are struggling to get by with the cost of food,” says Schmale. “If you make it more expensive to produce the food, transport the food, store the food, this is all reflected in the final price. This federal budget really didn’t do anything to help ease the burden placed on farmers, those that are producing our food.”
On top of affordability, Schmale says he would have liked to see more done to address the housing crisis, with concrete plans to build more units. However, he does praise the doubling of the tradesperson’s tools deduction, which helps people get started in the skilled trades, as a step in the right direction.
“We do have a shortage in labourers being in the skilled trades. So I think in this and many other programs, if we encourage more people to get into the skilled trades, that’s a good thing,” says Schmale. “That will help us in the long term with our infrastructure needs, being housing, capacity, and roads, that kind of thing. So this is something I’m very happy the government did.”
While the NDP has already pledged to support the budget as is, Schmale says the Conservatives will be putting amendments forward, and he’s hopeful the Liberals will hear out the changes.
“It’s hard not to include a large group of people, a large group of interests, when you’re spending that much money,” says Schmale. “I’m disappointed at this budget, to be honest with you, and would have liked to see better.”