The federal Finance Minister yesterday signalled what Canadian families should expect from today’s budget, noting they are bearing an “excessive” tax burden.
Jim Flaherty, at a pre-budget event in his Ontario riding, noted some families pay more than half of their income in taxes of one sort or another.
But Canadians expecting a new era of smaller government when Mr. Flaherty tables the first federal Conservative budget in more than 13 years will be surprised by the plans.
Although he says the government is committed to spending restraint, and opposition parties are already geared up to flail the Tories for parsimony, real spending hawks are prepared to be disappointed.
John Williamson, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said attacks from the Liberals and NDP should be treated with large doses of skepticism.
“Those accusations have more to do with partisan politics than reality. Unfortunately, the size of the federal government will not shrink under Prime Minister Stephen Harper.”
The loudest complaints will come from the Liberal party, whose last budget and a later fiscal update promised billions of dollars in program spending and proposed tax cuts. But the Conservatives’ own estimate of total program spending for the current fiscal year shows it will be on par with what the Liberals had planned to spend had they won re-election.
In addition, the bulk of the program spending and tax relief contained in the last two Liberal budget documents were largely back-loaded. Nearly two-thirds of the new spending and tax-cut initiatives contained in the 2005 budget were not set to kick in until April 1, 2008.
And finally, some of the programs that will be deemed cancelled by the opposition do not even exist, government watchers say.
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