Alternative Federal Budget

The CCPA’s leading economists find this year’s federal budget obscures the true cost of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s plan to balance the books while favouring Harper’s pet projects over Canadians’ priorities.

“For every dollar the Harper budget allocates to Canadians’ priorities—such as helping seniors and cleaning up the environment—it devotes 7.5 dollars for Conservative priorities such as jails and corporate tax cuts,” says CCPA Alternative Federal Budget Coordinator David Macdonald.

“The needs of most Canadians are neglected due to reckless spending on Conservative pet projects,” Macdonald says. “Canadians should be warned: deep spending cuts that will affect the services they need are on the horizon. The government isn’t revealing where the pain is going to come.” Read the full CCPA reaction to the budget here.

From corporate tax cuts to seniors benefits, everyone on Parliament Hill seems to think they know what should be in the budget. But can you do better?

What if you were finance minister for a day, what would be in your budget? We've developed an interactive budget tool based on our Alternative Federal Budget where you can choose the programs you think are important. Watch out though, budget choices have consequences. With every program or taxation change comes an effect on the deficit and unemployment.  

How will your budget look?  Once you've perfected it, you can share your budget with friends on Facebook, Twitter or by email.

Click here to start building your budget.

The CCPA released its Alternative Federal Budget Tuesday, promoting a federal budget that connects with Canadians' real financial worries.

Watch Alternative Federal Budget Coordinator David Macdonald on CBC's Power and Politics here.

Watch CCPA Senior Economist Armine Yalnizyan on CTV's Power Play here. 

The CCPA released the Alternative Federal Budget for 2011 today. This year's AFB presents a comprehensive recovery plan designed to:

• get Canadians working in good jobs again;
• reduce record-high income inequality, strengthen Canada’s middle class, and improve supports for Canada’s poor and most vulnerable;
• protect public programs that all Canadians rely on — including public health care and public pensions;
• manage Canada’s debt-to-GDP ratio without vital public program cuts;
• get serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and
• launch a multi-pronged initiative to expand high value-added production in key sectors.

The full budget document, budget in brief, and two page summary are available in both English and French.

CCPA Senior Economist Armine Yalnizyan gives us five strong reasons to say no to more corporate tax cuts in this short video.