The budget tabled by Canada's federal government last week has been overshadowed by the fall of that government and a federal election set for May 2.
The Conservative minority government tabled their budget on March 22, calling it "The Next Phase of Canada's Economic Action plan."
"Our government will build on the success of our stimulus growth," said Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty. "As the private sector moves ahead as the engine of growth and job creation, our government will foster the right conditions for long-term economic prosperity, while staying on track to return to balance in the medium term."
The budget was full of things like tax credits for family caregivers and for children's arts activities, and a plan to forgive a portion of the federal component of Canada Student Loans for doctors and nurses who agree to work in rural and remote communities.
These was money to establish new research chairs, and a plan to legislate a permanent annual investment of $2 billion in the Gas Tax Fund to provide predictable, long-term infrastructure funding for municipalities.
Saskatoon-Humboldt Member of Parliament, Conservative Brad Trost, picked three items out of the budget that he felt would be important to the people of this riding when contacted by the Journal on March 23.
The budget included, first, a $3,000 volunteer firefighters tax credit for volunteer firefighters who perform at least 200 hours of service in their communities per year.
Some of the backbench MPs had been working on that tax credit for a while, Trost noted, including himself.
"So there's a personal degree of satisfaction to see that in the budget," he noted. "Considering all the firefighters outside of Saskatoon are volunteers... it will be a nice encouragement to people to do what they are already doing, which is the right thing."
Second, Trost picked out the proposed enhancement to the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) for seniors who rely almost exclusively on their Old Age Security and the GIS. This measure was to provide a new top-up benefit of up to $600 per year for single seniors, and $840 per year for couples. This means an investment of more than $300 million per year, and was to help more than 680,000 seniors across Canada.
"This has been coming for a while," Trost said.
"This will help. Rural Saskatchewan has one of the older populations," he noted, so this area would have received a disproportionate amount of help from that.
Thirdly, Trost felt that the extension of the ecoENERGY Retrofit-Homes program, meant to help homeowners make their homes more energy efficient and reduce high energy costs, would have an impact here.
"These are three things the people in Humboldt (should note) as they apply to the community directly."
Of course, the budget came under fire from the Opposition parties - the New Democrats, Liberals and Bloc Quebecois - even though it was said that many of its measures were meant to appeal to the New Democrats. They planned to vote against the budget, it was believed, and bring down the government.
Trost said he had been hoping that an election would wait until Ontario was more economically stable, but that Opposition parties seemed "determined to go for it."
"If they want an election, there's no way to stop them," Trost said.
NDP backbenchers had told some of their Conservative counterparts that they were going to go to the polls this year, even before the budget was tabled.
"Beans get spilled around this place," Trost said.
But it wasn't the budget that brought down the government. On Friday, March 25, the three opposition parties joined forces to bring down the five-year-old minority Conservative government, pushing through a motion of no-confidence in the House of Commons based on two committee reports which, earlier in the week, found the government in contempt of parliament.
Those reports stemmed from misleading information provided by a junior minister about a decision to cut off funding to a non-profit group, and the government's refusal to disclose the full costs of anti-crime legislation and new fighter jets.
The vote came in at 156-144 in favour of defeating the minority government.
On March 26, Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked the governor-general to dissolve parliament.
A federal election has now been set for May 2.
The Conservatives had sustained the longest minority government in Canadian history. Now the entire country is going back to the polls.
The election race should be "five very interesting weeks, with very long hours," Trost said.
As the current MP, he will still be doing case work, doing what he can to help people, even during the election campaign, he said.
"Spring is not as busy for agriculture files," he said, "but I still have things (to do)... lots of stuff goes on... My regular job doesn't stop because a campaign is going on. It changes; it doesn't stop."
Is he ready for an election?
"I think so," Trost said. Despite receiving a large majority of the votes in the last election, "I never take votes for granted," he noted.
"I still feel I've got to get out there and earn it."
The other candidates in the Saskatoon-Humboldt riding include Darren Hill for the Liberal Party, Denise Kouri for the New Democrats and Sandra Finley for the Green Party.
