Oliver says Canada on the right track

Canada will have a surplus, not a deficit by next year if the Conservatives are re-elected in October. That’s according to Finance Minister Joe Oliver who delivered the fall fiscal update to a Toronto business audience today.

Oliver: “This is Canada’s moment.”

Joe Oliver says the unemployment rate and tax burdens are lower than we’ve seen in years — and Canada’s recovery from the recession is one of the strongest in the G7.

The finance minister says the Conservative fiscal plan would give the country a modest surplus by next year, 1.9 billion dollars, and higher surpluses each year afterwards to almost seven billion in 2019.

That’s despite 25 per cent lower oil prices, which will take half a billion dollars from the economy this year, and 2.5 billion every year afterwards until 2019.

In fact, the country would have seen a budget surplus as early as this year, if it weren’t for new tax cuts, like income splitting, and increased child care benefits and child fitness tax credits.

Oliver: “This is a policy that anyone who claims to care about the middle class should support. Yet Justin Trudeau has already announced he would repeal some of our family tax cuts and may repeal the others. Taking money out of the pockets of middle-class and lower-income Canadians does not sound like a winning platform to me. But hey, that’s what he said.”

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau responded with an attack on income splitting: “This government has demonstrated it is out of touch. Why else would you propose something that gives no help to 85 per cent of Canadians and instead helps 15 per cent of wealthiest families.

Federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair: “We’re going to point out that it makes no social sense to have a proposal that would help people pay for their second BMW instead of helping public transit in this country.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair called the outlook a mirage anyway, because it depends on another majority Conservative election win.

Ontario’s finance minister responded to the fiscal outlook as well today. Charles Sousa says the federal government has balanced its books on the backs of provinces. He says slashed funding means the province is shortchanged by 11 billion dollars a year.