Federal Budget is for all Canadians

March 23, 2007


Earlier this week, Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty delivered a balanced budget that cuts taxes for working families and seniors, invests in priorities such as the environment and manufacturing, and restores fiscal balance with the provinces.

Although there are many things in the Budget I could address in depth, I only have space to touch on a few areas that will have a big impact on our riding.

Seniors will benefit in several important ways. One change is that pension income can now be split between spouses to reduce income taxes. This change – long advocated by the Canadian Association for Retired Persons (CARP) – will save pensioners hundreds or thousands of dollars each year.

Pensioners will benefit from the decision to increase the age limit from 69 to 71 for converting Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSP’s) into income.

The environment is another priority. Nationally, $1.5 billion has been committed to the ecoTrust to assist provinces with green projects. Locally, $12 million has been allocated to improve water quality in Lake Simcoe over the next two years.

In addition, Budget 2007 was about helping families and children. Families will benefit from more than $5 billion in new personal tax cuts over the next three years, including an end to the marriage penalty, the introduction of a $2,000 child tax credit and a new tax benefit for low-income Canadians.

Municipalities are big winners because they will now be refunded 100% of the GST they pay – up from 57% before. This means that on a single large purchase, such as a $200,000 road grader, the savings will exceed $5,000. Even for smaller municipalities, annual savings will be in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Municipalities also asked for a longer term funding commitment for infrastructure. This request was answered with an extension of Federal Gas Tax Fund transfers already flowing. For example, Kawartha Lakes will receive $1.7 million this year, $2.2 million next year and $4.5 million for each of the following 5 years.

Manufacturers can benefit by taking advantage of a one-time program that will let them write off 100% of capital investments in machinery and equipment acquired before 2009.

In closing, I want to thank all of you who passed your suggestions and ideas to me during the pre-budget consultation period. I passed them along to Minister Flaherty, and was delighted to see many of them appear in Budget 2007.