Yorkton-Melville MP Cathay Wagantall is disappointed in the federal budget. The Conservative MP believes that the federal government needs to be focused on returning to a balanced budget, and is disappointed that the next budget is not moving in that direction.
“The government has gone well beyond what it promised in terms of deficit spending. We’re looking at $18.1 billion in this budget, so we’re looking at a humongous debt that Canada has not seen ever before. By 2019, we’re looking at a trillion dollars of national debt.”
She doesn’t believe that the budget is a sensible way to harness the country’s economy, and she believes the spending is a bad choice for the country.
“It’s not that there aren’t good causes to spend on, unfortunately the challenge is that the revenue generating is requiring more taxes, and the existing economy right now that is very good, the stimulus has not been due to government spending. It has been due to the increase in oil and the very strong housing market, unfortunately too strong in some ways in Vancouver and Toronto.”
Wagantall is also disappointed that of the spending in the budget, the infrastructure spending is one of the things being pulled back, by $2.1 billion. That’s the spending that gets people working and stimulates the economy, Wagantall notes.
Wagantall is disappointed in the way business tax works. She notes that the passive income requirement is very low, and notes that in her business, that would be about what you need to pay your employees in an economic downturn.
“$150,000 for a lot of small businesses is not a lot of money.”
Rail transportation is another worry for Wagantall, and she notes that there are ships waiting for grain, but no cars moving that grain, and farms waiting to sell.
“Our farmers might need some money to hold them over until all of this gets cleaned up. They can’t buy their fertilizer, and they have nowhere to put it... They may need support, and any of the throne speeches or budget, farmers are not part of the equation.”
She is taking a wait and see approach on some of the spending. She notes that she’s happy to see increased spending on autism support, for example, but it’s being directed towards a new organization so she wants to see how they spend it.
“That funding needs to come to where it works for the child or the person who needs the funding.”
The Pharmacare program is another area where Wagantall is concerned. She notes she would prefer if they did not put Kathleen Wynne’s health minister on the advisory board, given the situation in Ontario, and says that the challenge is that there are people who struggle to pay for their prescriptions, any pharmacare plans should be focused squarely on them. She notes that this program could balloon to costing $20 billion annually.
“An overarching, entire national program of any kind becomes extremely expensive.”
It’s not all bad, however, and Wagantall did see one thing which she thought was a smart move by the government. That’s reinstating funding for the Kingston Prison Farms. Previously de-funded under the Harper government, Wagantall is happy to see it coming back, as she believes a farm is a great way to get prisoners productive, rehabilitated and prepared for their re-entry into society.
Wagantall wants to see a more concentrated move to balance, because she sees too much debt as putting the country in a precarious position.
“I’m in opposition, and it’s my job to oppose, I understand that. But at the same time I don’t relish or find myself wanting to oppose that aren’t legitimate. I tend to think of myself as a business owner because I am one, and to over-spend to the extent where we don’t have a cushion, when we don’t know what’s going to happen with NAFTA, we are bleeding to resource sectors out of the country because the US is becoming very competitive in their corporate taxes... It’s really important that we get our economy going with our natural resources in a sustainable way.”
