Instructions:

So you think you can budget? Well your choices have consequences on both the deficit and unemployment:
1. Check the programs you want and watch the graphs.
2. Name your plan and hit "Share My Plan" to show your friends.
Updated with the latest budget figures (March 22, 2011)

My Budget Achievements No Achievements Yet Share My Plan                    2011-12       2012-13        2013-14
Aboriginal Issues
	First Nations Schooling Currently, the Government of Canada funds education for First Nations students, on average, $2,000 less per student than it does for other Canadian students. First Nations education systems will require stable, predictable, and adequate funding. Three programs are needed that focus on primary/secondary schools, post-secondary education and new school contruction.	$949 Million	$967 Million	$984 Million
	Improve drinking water and housing on reserves Access to safe drinking water is another important issue for First Nations, as some 114 communities are under drinking water advisories. Housing and sustainable planning and building practices also require immediate attention, as there is a demand of an estimated 85,000 new units required to alleviate overcrowding and backlogs.	$1,000 Million	$1,019 Million	$1,037 Million
	Track Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women The experience of violence for First Nations, Inuit and Métis women is far more common than for non-Aboriginal women in Canada. There are nearly 600 known cases of missing or murdered Aboriginal women in Canada, which exceeds by seven times the rate of disappearance and violent death by in the rest of the Canadian population. The Sisters in Spirit initiative tracks these cases.	$5 Million	$5 Million	$5 Million
Child Care
	$10 a day Childcare At least three-quarters of Canadians support a national child-care program and consider the lack of affordable child care to be a serious problem. Fortunately, the solution is clear and powerful: a consistent body of evidence shows that building a public system of early childhood education and care is not just the right thing to do for parents and children, but the smart thing to do for Canada’s economy.	$1,000 Million	$1,600 Million	$2,300 Million
Cities
	Building Communities Fund: Our cities and communities are on the front lines in a transformation that requires Canadians to fundamentally reconsider how their communities will operate in the future. Funding through this initiative will support environmentally sustainable municipal infrastructure and programs; will be restricted to projects owned and operated by the municipality; will require a high level of transparency and accountability; and will begin January 1st, 2013.	$1,500 Million	$6,000 Million	$6,000 Million
Culture, Arts & Communication
	Increase Charitable Tax Credit Canadians can and do support the arts but the government can help by increasing the flow of charitable gifts from Canadians from a “stretch” tax credit that increases the federal charitable tax credit by an additional 10% on all new giving up to $10,000.	$137 Million	$137 Million	$137 Million
	Modernize Canadian Broadband: Modernizing communications infrastructure creates jobs and builds communities, especially in rural and remote areas. A 2009 study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed that rural counties that embraced broadband adoption at the start of the millennium enjoyed access to more jobs than counties that did not. Their residents also earned more money than their less connected counterparts.	$400 Million	$500 Million	$600 Million
Environment
	Cancel Subsidies to the Oil and Gas, Nuclear and Asbestos Industries Every year the federal government spends large amounts to subsidize industries like Nuclear, Oil & Gas and Asbestos that should be forced to survive on their own.	-$864 Million	-$864 Million	-$864 Million
	Expand "ecoEnergy" home efficiency program The "ecoEnergy" program is designed to help homeowners make their homes more energy efficient by insulating, buying better furnaces and stopping drafts. In recent years the program has been cut instead of expanded.	$350 Million	$350 Million	$350 Million
	Implement a $30/ton Carbon Tax Climate Change is becoming an increasingly pressing issue as successive federal governments fail to take action. It is time for a carbon tax on non-industrial emissions (like gasoline). This program would start July 2012.	$0 Million	-$5,855 Million	-$9,548 Million
	Low Income Carbon Tax Refund One of the challenges with a carbon tax is that it falls most heavily on low income Canadians. This tax credit counters that negative impact.	$850 Million	$3,400 Million	$4,080 Million
	Protect Canada's Freshwater Resources This program will implement a comprehensive action plan to protect to the Great Lakes and other lakes in Canada. The funding will be used towards cleaning up areas of concern and priority zones, invasive species, inventory of how much water is in Canadian lakes, research/calculation of total water withdrawals, wetlands protection, and research and inventory on pollutants that are not covered by Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and the National Pollutant Inventory.	$675 Million	$675 Million	$675 Million
Health Care
	Community Health Care Until 1995, approximately 10% of Health Canada’s federal health transfers, about $51 per capita, was allocated to what were described as “extended health services”: nursing homes, residential care, home care, and ambulatory (outpatient) services such as physiotherapy.It is time to bring these non-hospital, community-based services fully within the purview of the Canada Health Act, as was initially contemplated when medicare was introduced.	$2,500 Million	$3,000 Million	$3,200 Million
	Universal Pharmacare Today provincial governments pay less than 39% of the total drug bill, and consumers pay up to 16% of drug costs out of pocket. We can do better using a single, public system that manages costs through four levers: universal public insurance; a national formulary of essential drugs; independent evidence-based drug evaluation; and bulk purchasing. And one that can save more than $10.7 billion in annual costs for prescription medicines — or an estimated 43% of Canada’s $25.1-billion drug bill. The largest cost reductions would come from evidence-based drug reviews and price negotiations for bulk purchasing.	$3,390 Million	$3,830 Million	$4,000 Million
Housing
	Affordable Housing Strategy Too many low, moderate, and middle-income Canadians continue to wait for the promised housing help. Today, a record 1.5 million Canadian households — more than four million women, men, and children — find themselves in “core housing need.” Unlike other developed countries, Canada needs a national housing framework for the quick and orderly flow of funding from governments to the affordable housing sector.	$1,763 Million	$1,763 Million	$1,763 Million
International
	Military Spending back to pre-2001 Level: Canada is among the 15 top military spending nations in the world, and the sixth largest military spender among the 28 members of NATO. Our military spending is now higher than it has been in more than 60 years — higher even than it was during the Cold War.	-$1,400 Million	-$2,600 Million	-$4,000 Million
	Increase International Development Aid to 0.7% of GNI The 2010 federal budget capped Canada's international development assistance about 0.35% of GNI about half of Pearsons original goal for all nations of 0.7%. This program would get us back on track towards that goal.	$887 Million	$2,080 Million	$2,444 Million
Post Secondary Education
	Reduce Tuition to 1992 Levels As the value of federal transfers diminished in the 1990s, tuition fees skyrocketed from an average of roughly $1,460 in 1990 to over $5,000 in 2010. Lower levels of funding also impair the ability of institutions to hire an adequate number of instructors and support staff, resulting in a reduction in the quality of Canada’s colleges and universities.	$799 Million	$1,590 Million	$2,390 Million
	Create Income Tested Grants Despite their large price tag, federal tax credits for all students are a poor instrument to either improve access to post-secondary education or relieve student debt, since everyone who participates qualifies for tax credits regardless of financial need. The federal government is diverting vast sums of public funding where they are not necessarily required.	$1,360 Million	$1,393 Million	$1,406 Million
	Deferred College and University Maintenance Falling federal transfers to post-secondary institutions have meant that those institutions cannot keep up with maintenance and the latest technology. This program would help to address those deferred maintenance needs.	$800 Million	$800 Million	$800 Million
Poverty & EI
	Increase Canada Child Tax Benefit to $5,400/child Regardless of the poverty measure used, in 2008 over three million Canadians — more than 600,000 of them children — lived in poverty. In First Nations families, one in four children lives in poverty. The Canada Child Tax Benefit directly targets children in poverty.	$4,759 Million	$4,759 Million	$4,759 Million
	Double the GST credit Temporary bouts of poverty may be overcome, but evidence shows that the depth of poverty is deepening and that its duration lengthening, leaving a scarring legacy on individual lives and communities across the country. Persistent poverty represents a violation of economic and social rights as enshrined in international law, and a squandering of human potential. The GST rebate specifically targets Canadians on low incomes.	$3,680 Million	$3,732 Million	$3,784 Million
	EI Universal entrance of 360 hours Today, less than half of Canada’s 1.5 million unemployed workers collect Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, even though the national unemployment rate is almost 8%. Special EI measures introduced in the 2009 federal budget have expired — long before a real labour market recovery. The number of regular EI beneficiaries is falling faster than the number of unemployed workers as some workers exhaust benefits and as those being laid off from precarious jobs fail to qualify for EI.	$1,100 Million	$1,100 Million	$1,100 Million
The Public Service
	Cut Consultant Costs Since 2005, federal outsourcing costs have skyrocketed 80% and are currently running at over $1 billion a year. These costs need to be brought under control.	$0 Million	-$200 Million	-$300 Million
Sectoral Development
	Green Skills Initiative There are many potential upsides and opportunities associated with the greening of Canada’s economy. In all sector development, pollution reduction, clean technology development, and the amelioration of existing environmental damage will top the list of criteria for ranking selected initiatives. To maximize the environmental upside of sector development strategies,and ease the associated transitions, a good sector development strategy pays special attention to the creation of good green jobs across a range of specific activities.	$100 Million	$100 Million	$100 Million
	Canadian Development Bank Like other commercial and publicly owned banks, the CDB will leverage its capital into an expanded portfolio in new sector-development initiatives that promote the diversification of Canada’s exports and stimu­late and nurture desirable innovative industries. One division of the new CDB will focus on al­locating capital toward social enterprise, includ­ing micro-credit, community economic develop­ment, and co-operative initiatives.	$1,200 Million	$1,100 Million	$700 Million
Seniors
	Increase GIS benefits by 15% The federal government needs to act unilaterally to eliminate poverty among elderly Canadian residents by making changes to the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) and Old Age Security (OAS) that are within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government.	$1,164 Million	$1,164 Million	$1,164 Million
Tax
	A 32% income tax rate on those making over $250,000 a year above the 29% federal tax bracket in effect for incomes over $130,000. An extra tax bracket will affect the less that 1% (0.8%) of tax filers who make over $250,000 a year.	-$2,064 Million	-$2,229 Million	-$2,400 Million
	A 35% income tax rate on those making over $750,000/year Adding a fifth federal tax bracket at 35% for incomes above $750,000 a year could raise an additional $1.2 billion a year. A federal tax rate of 35% would translate to a combined average federal-provincial top marginal rate of 52%. It is important to note that these tax rates only apply to incomes above $750,000.	-$1,200 Million	-$2,000 Million	-$2,100 Million
	Eliminate Stock Options Deductions The executive stock option deduction allows Canada’s wealthiest executives to pay half the tax rate on their income that ordinary Canadians pay on their employment income.	-$1,004 Million	-$1,100 Million	-$1,210 Million
	Fully tax Corporate and Personal Capital Gains Income from investment and speculation is currently taxed at half the rate of employment income: e.g. at a top federal rate of 14.5% versus 29%. The value of this loophole was doubled in 2000 when the inclusion rate was reduced from 75% to 50%, ostensibly to boost investment and productivity. But it has had the opposite effect.	-$2,356 Million	-$5,765 Million	-$7,000 Million
	Financial Activities Tax This program will apply a value-added tax of 5% in the financial sector (profits and remuneration less fixed investment). As advocated by the IMF, such a measure would help compensate for the relative under-taxation of the sector as a result of the exemption of most financial services from value added taxes (such as the GST).	-$4,700 Million	-$4,800 Million	-$4,900 Million
	Increase the Corporate Tax rate to its 2006 level of 21% Federal corporate income tax rates have fallen precipitously since 2006. They contribute to a large deficit and do little to create jobs. This program phases the 21% rate back in over 3 years.	-$5,400 Million	-$11,200 Million	-$13,400 Million
	Reinstate the 28% tax on Oil & Gas and Financial Industries The oil and gas industry is one of the most highly profitable industries in Canada, yet it pays low royalty rates and its corporate in­come tax rates have been declining. With much of the industry now foreign-owned, much of its increased profits simply flow overseas. The financial industry is even more profitable and has benefited from significant government intervention during the financial crisis.	-$750 Million	-$3,000 Million	-$3,000 Million