Alternative Federal Budget

Every year the federal finance committee invites different groups to submit their budget ideas. The theory goes that good ideas can then be incorporated into the federal budget. This year the list of those invited to submit pre-budget submissions has shrunk, with many organizations that previously presented now being left out in the cold.

Several Alternative Federal Budget Partners have still been invited to submit their budget ideas. Below is a partial list of those submissions:

-          Canadian Association of Retired Persons

-          Canadian CED Network

-  Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada 

-          Citizens for Public Justice

-          Green Budget Coalition

- Native Women's Association of Canada

-          Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada

Yesterday on our blog, Behind the Numbers, Alternative Federal Budget Coordinator David Macdonald drew back the curtain on Federal Budget 2011, exposing the plan to cut the deficit through an unprecedented cut to a third of public service sector jobs. Click here for more.

CCPA Senior Economist Armine Yalnizyan, meanwhile, appeared on the CBC's Lang and O'Leary Exchange last night to counter conservative pundits' praise of the massive cuts.

Click here to view (we suggest skipping to 17:40 in the time sequence to view Armine's portion).

Look back at our 2011 Alternative Federal Budget materials for a plan that addresses what matters to Canadians: post-recession job and household debt worries, pension concerns, worsening income inequality and climate change.

Check out So You Think You Can Budget, our interactive budget tool that uses all the same multipliers and calculations as the full AFB but this time you get to pick what’s in and what’s out. If you were finance minister for a day, which programs would you pick? How would you manage the deficit and unemployment? Sometimes its not as easy as it looks.

Despite the government’s stay-the-course rhetoric, the upcoming federal budget will lay the foundation for one of the most aggressive assaults on public service delivery in Canadian history. David Macdonald and Armine Yalnizyan have written a report to give Canadians a sense of what to expect from the Harper government’s first majority budget and the long-term impact it could have on Canada as we know it.

Click here to read Budget 2011 Redux: What's New in Version 2.

Why analyze a budget that was a live option for all of 45 minutes? Budgets reveal government priorities — and this budget could have ramifications for Canadians for many years to come.

• Click here to read our analysis of the 45-minute budget, explaining why it wasn't worth supporting.
• Click here to read CCPA Senior Economist Armine Yalnizyan's Globe and Mail article on the budget and the poison pill therein. Click here to read her post on the Progressive Economics Forum blog that explains the revenue side of the story.
• Click here to read Jim Stanford's latest piece on the PEF blog, which lays out in detail the arguments and counterarguments on corporate taxes and investment.

Budgets are about choices, they reflect a government's values and priorities. With a $250 billion federal budget, the Harper Government could choose to invest in programs like universal child care or pharmacare... or spend that money on corporate tax cuts, prisons, and fighter jets.

We've created a poster and a short video to help illustrate the choices between this and that. Which would you choose? View the poster in English or French, and the video below:

Budgets are about choices, they reflect a government's values and priorities. With a $250 billion federal budget, the Harper Government could choose to invest in programs like universal child care or pharmacare... or spend that money on corporate tax cuts, prisons, and fighter jets.

We've created a video to help illustrate the choices between this and that. Which would you choose? Watch the video below: