OTTAWA—Tomorrow’s federal budget may deliver a surplus but it will fall short on delivering solutions to many of the problems Canadians are facing, says a report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
Alternative budgets
The Alternative Federal Budget 2015: Delivering the Good demonstrates that the federal government’s continued obsession with austerity and balancing the budget comes at the cost of higher household debt, fewer services, and weakened job growth.
The AFB, now in its 20th year, delivers a plan that would lift 893,000 Canadians out of poverty, reduce income inequality, boost economic growth, reduce carbon emissions, and create or sustain 300,000 jobs a year, bringing Canada’s employment rate back to its pre-recession level.
L’Alternative budgétaire pour le gouvernement fédéral de 2015 : Livrer la marchandise démontre que l’obsession persistante du fédéral face à l’austérité et à l’équilibre budgétaire alourdit l’endettement, réduit les services et ralentit la croissance de l’emploi.
OTTAWA—L’Alternative budgétaire pour le gouvernement fédéral (ABGF) de 2015 dévoilée aujourd’hui par le Centre canadien de politiques alternatives (CCPA) démontre que l’obsession persistante du gouvernement fédéral face à l’austérité et à l’équilibre budgétaire alourdit l’endettement, réduit les services et ralentit la croissance de l’emploi.
OTTAWA—The 2015 Alternative Federal Budget (AFB), released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), demonstrates that the federal government’s continued obsession with austerity and balancing the budget comes at the cost of higher household debt, fewer services, and weakened job growth.
Budgets are about choices that reflect a government's values and priorities. The Alternative Federal Budget (AFB), now in its 20th year, demonstrates that we can afford to make different choices. It puts forward the fiscal dimensions of a broad progressive public policy agenda, consistent with the values of millions of Canadians.
The Alternative Municipal Budget (AMB) is the tool we use to engage citizen groups on the Winnipeg budget. Part of our message is that the City budget is not just an assortment of seemingly meaningless numbers. It is a means for implementing a plan, which is hopefully working for a broader vision that our elected representatives have been selected to steer Winnipeg toward. The themes we suggested in our 2014 AMB, titled Taking Back the City, bear repeating in the context of the 2015 City Budget.
Much of Winnipeg’s infrastructure is in desperate need of repair or replacement. The City’s 2009 administrative report found that just to maintain our existing infrastructure in its current state required $2.1 billion be spent over the next 10 years. Bringing the existing infrastructure to an adequate level of repair required a further $1.7 billion and the amount needed to invest on new infrastructure was around $3.6 billion. Accordingly, our total infrastructure deficit was $7.4 billion (2009 dollars).
Winnipeg's mayoral race is now officially underway. Any serious contenders are going to have to convince a very skeptical public that they can turn around what really has been a winter of discontent with City services. Unfortunately, problems that have taken years to accumulate are unlikely to be addressed overnight.
As Winnipeggers come out of an unusually punishing winter, the sun seems to be stimulating more than the usual spring activities. There is a feeling that our city is poised to embrace a change; that politicians will be forced to finally adopt some rational policies to move Winnipeg into the ranks of a modern city. Maybe the frozen pipes, water main breaks, a bus system that struggled to meet the needs of passengers and the worst potholes ever will serve to finally hold decision makers responsible for our infrastructure problems.