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North Island-Powell River MP has high and low points in 2023 Federal Budget

Housing, Seniors, Veterans and Health care all could have seen more — Rachel Blaney
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NDP leader Jagmeet Singh (left) tours the Campbell River Food Bank with North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney during Singh’s visit to the riding on Jan. 23. Photo by Marc Kitteringham/Campbell River Mirror

North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney has high points and low points about the 2023 Federal Budget presented by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on March 28.

“There were good things and things that I’m concerned about,” Blaney said.

First, the good. Blaney said that the doubling of the GST rebate, which was called a “groceries benefit” in the budget, would be a benefit to Canadians, and one for which the NDP has been advocating. Other high points were the expansion of the dental care program to seniors, which Blaney fought for over the past year, the clean economy investment and the investment in an Indigenous housing strategy.

“This has been a huge challenge across the country and we’ve heard about it a lot in our writing so good to see some money going into projects,” she said. “They’re going to help build the housing which we desperately need in our region.”

Some smaller ticket items also caught Blaney’s eye. First is the alternative minimum tax rate, which she says “basically means that the ultra-rich won’t be able to pay less than 20.5 per cent in income tax. No matter what deduction they’re eligible for. So this will recoup about $3 billion over the next five years to put into programming that help bring up the bar of dignity in Canada.”

On top of that is the increase to the Canada Student Grants, the lowering of merchant fees for small businesses and the commitment to address the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls issue, which includes launching a Red Dress Alert system.

“When an Indigenous woman girl or a member from the 2SLGBTQIA+ community goes missing they’ll be able to put a Red Dress Alert out immediately to get all eyes watching and trying to find out that person,” Blaney said.

However, one of the things that fell short in Blaney’s eyes is the amount of money set aside for housing in rural and remote communities.

“We’re still not seeing the amount of housing that we need in smaller communities, especially in our area where the cost of housing has jumped up so high,” Blaney said. “I’m still working on getting the department to better understand the challenges that rural and remote communities face.”

Blaney was also disappointed that the budget did not do enough to address taxation on the ultra-wealthy. Over the past year, profits for grocery and oil and gas corporations have risen dramatically, Blaney said, but “we’re going to be watching this. You can’t be profiteering off (the) suffering of Canadians and that’s what we’re seeing right now.”

Despite the province stepping up with funding for the North Island’s health-care system, Blaney was disappointed that there was not more allocated for health care from the federal government.

“It’s hard to attract people to your community if you’re like, well we may or may not have an emergency room at night,” she said.

One of the biggest items in the budget was the green investments. The government announced a $1.2 billion investment this year, and almost $21 billion over the next five years in the country’s green economy. Most of that funding is going to tax credits: one for machinery and equipment investments, one for hydrogen investment, one for clean energy and one for carbon capture. What Blaney appreciated from the announcements was that the investments would only go to companies that paid their employees high wages, but questioned whether tax credits would go far enough towards reducing Canada’s emissions.

“We need to have as much as possible to encourage businesses and companies to look at how they can be more innovative,” she said. “We still need to have some sort of resources — which I don’t see yet at a federal level — around looking at solutions that make sense for different regions around creating a more sustainable future… We have to inspire innovation as well. And that happens in a lot of ways, not just through tax credits.”

Blaney, who is the NDP critic for veterans, had reservations about the lack of details for veterans’ funding. The budget included more than $150 million for veterans, but where that funding will go is not clear. Blaney’s other focus is seniors, which besides the inclusion in the dental care plan were essentially left out of the budget this year.

“Here’s where it was terrible,” she said. “They just reannounced everything that they’ve already done. There was nothing for seniors in this.”

Across the board, the budget showed Blaney that the government’s priority should be to be as efficient as possible with money, while not leaving people behind.

“We need to look at the disparity that is growing between everyday people in Canada and the ultra-rich and make sure that they’re paying their fair share,” she said. “It’s about making sure we’re spending money responsibly, but we’re not sacrificing the most vulnerable Canadians at the same time.”

RELATED: Budget 2023: Projected cost of federal dental program set to more than double

$491B federal budget invests heavily in green economic transformation



marc.kitteringham@campbellrivermirror.com

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