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Little in federal budget for British Columbians, MP says

Trudeau failed to follow through on promises to close loopholes for the rich – Rachel Blaney
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Rachel Blaney, MP for North Island/Powell River, was disappointed in some aspects of the 2017 federal budget.

British Columbians struggling with precarious employment, rising costs and record household debt received little from the recent federal Liberal budget, according to MP Rachel Blaney, while the wealthy and well-connected were rewarded,.

By failing to follow through on Trudeau’s promise to close CEO stock option loopholes, the federal budget handed over another $725 million to the wealthiest CEOs every year Blaney said.

“I welcome the investments in housing,” Blaney said, “but funding needs to come sooner, Liberals are delaying, spreading the funds over 11 years and quietly devoting next to nothing to housing this year.”

The budget offered little in the way of good news for Canada’s Veterans, Blaney said.

“Veterans will see most of these budget announcements delayed until 2018. I believe they’ve waited long enough,” Blaney said.

At the same time the budget failed to provide the $155 million needed to end the systemic discrimination in the provision of welfare services to indigenous children, Blaney said.

Meanwhile the budget also failed to include any measures to clean up abandoned vessels, protect salmon, or support forestry jobs, Blaney said.

“Our pristine coast deserves to be protected from oil spills, yet there is no additional funding for the Ocean Protection Plan,” said Rachel Blaney. “Even worse, the Liberals are cutting funding for the Pan-Canadian Clean Growth and Climate Change framework by more than a billion dollars over the next two years. ”

After promising real change, Justin Trudeau adopted Stephen Harper’s health care funding plan, Blaney said.

The federal budget is also a missed opportunity to make the cost of medicine more affordable for Canadians and to save billions by implementing a pharmacare plan. Canada is the only country with universal health care that doesn’t include prescription drug coverage.

Furthermore, this budget included promises from the last budget, missing promises and countless promises fated to be implemented years from now, Blaney added.