Stephen Hui

Libby Davies.

By Libby Davies

I’ve been through a few federal budgets now. Possibly the only difference this time was that I tweeted the event as it was happening. I must have sent 10 tweets and I liked being able to share my notes with people as it was happening—from noticing the odd calm before the speech, to the disappointing end of it, realizing that for the second budget in a row, there was nothing for my constituents who have been calling for housing, childcare, and training dollars.

After all was said and done in the House of Commons, I felt good that our leader, Jack Layton, was out there right away, pointing out the contradictions in this budget and calling it on what it is—a budget for banks and corporations—with nothing for Canadians to help meet basic needs.

The budget announced that the Conservatives are moving ahead with a controversial cut to corporate taxes that will mean a loss of billions of dollars in revenue annually. But have no doubt, they will make up this lost revenue, and then some, with a new EI payroll tax. The new EI premium will be paid by every worker and every employer and is expected to (conveniently) leave the government with a $19-billion surplus. Once again, individual Canadians are paying more so big corporations can pay less.

This was a budget based on ideology not good economics, with clear winners and clear losers.

Who wins? Corporations and banks.

Banks and oil companies are the most profitable corporations in the country, and they just got a little richer with more corporate tax cuts in this year’s budget.

While most Canadians are still struggling with the fall-out of the recession, TD Bank just reported earnings of $1.29 billion in the first quarter of the year, double the profits from the same time last year. Still, the Conservatives think corporations deserve more and are bent on making Canada’s corporate taxes the lowest in the G7. (Despite a 36 percent drop in corporate taxes in the last decade, and record profits for much of that time, total business investment spending has declined as a percentage of corporate cash flow.)

Investment in infrastructure produces 10 times more in economic stimulus than tax cuts. A decade of corporate tax cuts has yet to promote innovation. The new cuts won’t create a single new job, but we will go deeper into debt in giving them.

Who loses? Workers, pensioners, families, the homeless, and the environment.

The budget has no strategy for job creation for the 1.5 million Canadians looking for work. There are training dollars, but no new quality jobs to go to when the training is completed, and no extensions for EI to help people through the recession. Moreover, all workers and employers are going to be hit with a payroll tax on EI, to help pay for those corporate tax breaks.

Seniors lose with nothing to enhance pensions, which the NDP has been calling for. As little as $700 million to increase the Guaranteed Income Supplement would end poverty among seniors, but this budget has chosen profits for banks over meeting social needs.

Changes to the Universal Child Care Benefit will give single parents only $3.35 more per week, without creating a single daycare space. $10 million for action on missing and murdered women has been a long-time coming, but as Grand Chief Stewart Phillip noted, that money should be going to Native women’s groups who have been at the front line of this issue for years.

What stood out most for me is that for two budgets in a row, there is no new investment in housing and homelessness. The Homelessness Partnering Strategy won’t be renewed after 2011 and, as Michael Shapcott pointed out, although there are still stimulus dollars left, those who need it the most will see nothing.

Almost two million Canadians live in housing insecurity, with 200,000 homeless. The cost of housing in Vancouver has pushed housing affordability to crisis levels. I’m worried about the consequences of ignoring this issue and am pushing for my bill for a national housing strategy (Bill C-304) to pass through Parliament this spring.

We need to make better choices than those made in this budget. Housing, childcare, pensions, the environment—that’s what we’ll be fighting for.

Libby Davies is the NDP MP for Vancouver East.