The 2010 Federal Budget Delivers Cuts Not Jobs
The Budget contains no big surprises but is still a big disappointment. Despite the fact that unemployment is and will remain very high, economic stimulus measures effectively end after this year. A few very small new investments in jobs and skills will be made, but they do not amount to even the beginnings of a strategy to build a new economy. There will be a temporary extension of EI work-sharing, but about 500,000 unemployment claims filed during the Great Recession will still be exhausted. Corporate tax cuts continue, and are even modestly increased in this Budget, so the burden of deficit reduction will fall on government programs. Despite very low interest rates and one of the lowest debt levels in the advanced industrial countries, federal program spending will be slashed. Spending on international assistance is to be frozen.
While the world’s and Canada’s economic recovery is still very fragile, the Harper government has decided to focus on eliminating the deficit. Creating jobs would help balance the books at far lower cost.
The full CLC Budget Analysis can be found at:
And a more condensed version is on rabble at
http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/budget-delivers-cuts-not-jobs