Peace River–Westlock MP surprised about amount of spending in federal budget

BARRHEAD - Peace River-Westlock Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MP Arnold Viersen said he was hopeful that the Liberal government were serious about reining in unnecessary spending.

However, his hopes were dashed when finance minister Chrystia Freeland released her 2023 budget in Parliament on March 28, outlining the government's fiscal plan, that includes $67.3-billion in new spending over five years and projects a $40.1-billion deficit for 2023-24.

"It is interesting. (Freeland) had signalled to Parliament that she was going to work towards a balanced budget and pay down the COVID debt, and none of those things came to pass in the budget," he said.

The budget is divided into three main themes: helping Canadians deal with inflationary pressures; healthcare, including expanding their new dental care plan; and investing in green energy. 

Viersen described the affordability initiatives as a bit of a scattered approach.

The Liberals set aside $2.5 billion in targeted income relief to 11 million low- and modest-income Canadians via a boost to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) credit.

The one-time "grocery payment" is expected to deliver $467 directly to a family of four, $234 to a single Canadian without kids and $225 to the average senior.

The budget also offers about $814 million in 2023-24 to help students starting their academic year on Aug. 1, 2023. The measures include: increasing the student loan limit from $210 to $300 a week and increasing student grants by 40 per cent.

On the healthcare front, the budget includes, as part of the deal the federal government reached with the provinces and territories in exchange for marked improvements to patient care and access, a commitment to spend $46.2 billion more than they previously earmarked. 

Included in the extra health spending is $45.9 million over four years to expand a budget 2022 initiative that offered a 50 per cent increase to the maximum loan forgiveness on Canada Student Loans for doctors and nurses working in underserved rural or remote communities; and $359.2 million over five years to combat the opioid crisis by renewing Canada's drug and substances strategy.

Although, , the CPC has been calling upon the government to take additional steps to address the country's growing opioid crisis, Viersen said they totally disagree with the tact the Liberals have taken.

"One of our challenges about the government's approach is funding what they call 'safe supply'," he said. "We don't think there is such a thing as a safe supply. We want to ensure people who are addicted to drugs get the treatment that they need to get off of the drugs, not supply them. Just because it is a clean poison doesn't mean it isn't a poison."

Viersen noted the Liberals also announced several initiatives that the CPC have been campaigning for some time through private members bills, such as parental bereavement leave, which would allow federal workers who have experienced a pregnancy loss, including those parents planning to have a child through adoption or surrogacy by expanding paid-leave through changes in the Canada Labour Code;  updating rules for interoperability of farm equipment; and a three-digit 988 suicide prevention hotline.

He noted that the expansion of parental bereavement leave was included as part of CPC Calgary Shepard MP Tom Kmiec's private member's bill C-211, while farm equipment interoperability is part of Cyprus Hills-Grassland CPC MP Jeremy Patzer's efforts to amend Canada's Copy Right Act and the three-digit suicide prevention line was actively campaigned for by B.C. Caribou-Prince George CPC MP Todd Doherty.

"It seems this is a budget where they are running out of ideas, so they are stealing some from us, which we are happy about," Viersen said. "But we also have some good ideas about balancing the budget, and I wish they would have taken some of those."

He repeated his surprise that the government did not show more spending restraint.

"They said for every new dollar of spending, they were going to find a dollar of savings. They were committed to that, yet there doesn't seem to be anywhere (in the budget) that they pursued that," Viersen said, adding he and the CPC are concerned about what the increase to the deficit will mean to affordability. "Fundamentally, the inflation and cost-of-living crisis is driven by the reduction of the value of our money and is caused by deficit spending, which this budget doesn't address at all."

Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com