Fraser Valley – As expected, MP’s from the two major parties in the Fraser Valley, have different takes on the Federal Budget. A deficit heavy budget in trying to stimulate the COVID ridden economy.
Mark Strahl, Member of Parliament for Chilliwack—Hope responded to Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s 2021 Federal Budget (Note Strahl is the Conservative Party Whip) :
“After the longest time Canada has ever gone without a federal budget, the Minister of Finance tabled the Liberal government’s budget on Monday, with over $135 billion in brand new government spending and a record projected federal deficit of $354.2 billion for the end of the 2020-21 fiscal year.”
“This is the longest budget document in Canadian history at a staggering 739 pages. It contains an overabundance of new financial commitments from the Trudeau Liberals with no explanation of how Canadians will pay for them. This is clearly a budget designed to boost Liberal electoral prospects, with no regard for the financial wellbeing of the country.”
“This budget harms the financial security of Canadians by adding a staggering $330 billion to our national debt over the next 5 years, bringing the total to over a trillion dollars and climbing. Justin Trudeau is on pace to add more to the amount owing on the national debt than all of the previous Prime Ministers of Canada combined.”
“It’s abundantly clear that the Trudeau Liberals still lack a plan at the most critical time in recent Canadian history. Under Justin Trudeau, Canada spent more per capita during this pandemic and yet achieved the worst outcomes in the G7 when it comes to employment, vaccine rollout, and business confidence. That means Canada spent the most to achieve the least.”
“Canada’s Conservatives wanted to see a plan to safely reopen our economy, get Canadians back to work again, and provide future generations with the hope and confidence that will be better off than the generation that came before. We want to see a plan to get our nation’s finances under control. We didn’t get that with this budget.”
Ken Hardie is the Liberal MP for (Surrey) Fleetwood-Port Kells:
Job one is to get us all through the pandemic, so the personal and business supports will continue. Then, we need to recover the rest of the jobs we lost during the pandemic, but we can do better than go back to hundreds of thousands of low-paying, precarious jobs; we have an opportunity to build a new ‘green’ economy – we need to if we’re going to save the planet and there will be much better work for people in that sector.
