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Tax cuts don’t cut it as stimulus

Looks like Conservatives will be Conservatives today.

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This political budget has no vision for Canada’s future. Instead it tries to buy-off as many constituencies as possible dribbling its huge spending capacity in ways that simply don’t address the short term crisis and set us up to fail when later on the as the piper will demand to be paid.

Irrelevant tax cuts are being served up as stimulus measures despite the fact that they just about ensure long term structural deficits will be the biggest legacy of this government’s budget if it passes. Most egregious is the rennovation tax credit costing $2 billion. Come on. That’s compared to only $1 billion allocated to “green” spending.

The Conservatives don’t seem to give a damn about sunset clauses for this spending package when it comes to tax cuts. Meanwhile unfair and inadequate provisions for those taking the biggest hit under these economic circumstances are offered very little.

The most important issue facing the country – the absolute certainty that unemployment will grow disastrously and the complete inadequacy of the current EI regulations to meet the needs – got an extra five weeks of funding. That’s nice. But the program pays only 55 percent of wages to a max of $447 taxable dollars per week ensuring most families with a primary wage earner who loses their job will be coping with poverty if they are lucky enough to be eligible.

The result of huge unemployment and therefore impoverished families is not only a huge growth of hardship and misery on a personal level. It is also a critical drag on our collective hopes for economic recovery. Communities and businesses all lose along with the unemployed who lack government support in this time of need. We leave them behind at the peril of all.

Add the complete ignorance on the green file and the combo becomes a toxic cocktail.

This budget will doom Canadians to all the worst effects of deficit spending with only unfocussed, scatter shot benefits.

Let’s hope the Liberals call them on it.

View the entire budget here.

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