While other countries continue to struggle with debt that is spiralling out of control, Canada remains in the most enviable fiscal position among all G-7 countries. Economic Action Plan 2014 keeps our Conservative government on track.
It will return Canada to balanced budgets in 2015-16. Meanwhile, the NDP and Liberals keep demanding reckless spending and want to impose higher taxes. We will not do that.
Budget 2014 builds on those efforts to reduce wasteful and ineffective government spending by making public-sector wages and benefits more affordable for taxpayers by ensuring compensation is fair and in line with other public- and private-sector employers. We are also improving the fairness of the tax system, by closing tax loopholes and strengthening tax enforcement. In addition, our Conservative government continues to control the size and cost of government, by freezing departmental budgets to ensure efficiency in operations and administration.
With those and other measures, Economic Action Plan 2014 will bring the projected deficit down to $2.9 billion by 2014-15 and forecasts a surplus in 2015-16. While we are controlling departmental spending, federal support to Canadians, like seniors benefits and major transfers to provinces for health care, education and other services Canadians rely on, will also keep growing — to record levels.
For Alberta, the transfers will total $5.2 billion in 2014-15 — a whopping 134 per cent increase from under the previous Liberal government.
Economic Action Plan 2014 enhances the New Horizons for Seniors Program by increasing funding with an additional $5 million per year. It launches the Canadian Employers for Caregivers Action Plan, to work with employers so that caregivers can maximize their participation in the workforce while being able to provide care to their loved ones. It also expands the Targeted Initiative for Older Workers, by investing to help unemployed older workers put their talents and experience back to work.
Family farms are the backbone of our country, and our riding in particular. Our farmers feed Canadians and the world, while providing jobs and opportunities. We are expanding tax deferral for livestock, supporting innovation and competitiveness, and introducing a new Pilot Price Insurance Program, to provide cattle and hog producers in Western Canada with insurance against unexpected price declines within a production cycle.
Economic Action Plan 2014 introduces new measures to support Canada’s veterans, including expanding the Funeral and Burial Program to ensure that modern-day veterans of modest means can have a dignified funeral and burial. We are also increasing access to veterans’ services, by enabling veterans and their families to engage the Department of Veterans Affairs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and giving former Canadian Armed Forces personnel priority in federal public-service employment opportunities.
I encourage everyone to visit www.ActionPlan. gc.ca to read about the many other measures that our Conservative government is taking in Economic Action Plan 2014 to get our nation to a balanced budget while helping small businesses, families, consumers, students and youth, communities trying to improve local infrastructure, and more — while keeping taxes low.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this or previous columns, you can write to me at 4945 — 50 Street, Camrose, AB, T4V 1P9, phone 780-608-4600, toll-free at 1-800-665-4358, fax 780-608-4603 or email Kevin.Sorenson.C1@parl.gc.ca.
Kevin Sorenson is the Minister of State (Finance) and the member of Parliament for Crowfoot.
— From the Hill