Ottawa – Gord Brown, Member of Parliament for Leeds-Grenville today applauded Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s latest budget.

“The opposition parties have told us to slash spending and raise taxes but we chose a better plan,” Brown explains. “The new budget builds on Canada’s economic recovery with action to create jobs and growth, sustains the nation’s economic advantages and includes a disciplined plan to balance the budget.

“This is exactly what folks in Leeds-Grenville asked for in my budget consultations and what I discussed with the Minister over the past few weeks.”

The budget continues with Year 2 of Canada’s Economic Action Plan which includes:
$3.2 billion in personal income tax relief; over $4 billion in additional benefits and training opportunities and employment insurance relief to assist unemployed Canadians; $7.7 billion in infrastructure stimulus; $1.9 billion to create the economy of tomorrow and $2.2 billion to support industries and communities.

As well, it invests in a number of new, targeted initiatives to build jobs and growth, harness innovation, and make Canada a destination for new investment. These measures include: over $100 million to protect jobs by extending work-share programs; $108 million to support young workers through internships and skills development; over $600 million to help develop and attract talented people to strengthen our capacity for world-leading research and development and its commercialization; making Canada a tariff-free zone for manufacturers eliminating all remaining tariffs on machinery and equipment and goods imported for further manufacturing in Canada; establishing a red tape reduction commission and measures to support investment in clean energy.

The three point plan to return to balanced budgets includes exiting from the Economic Action Plan as originally planned; restraining spending through targeted reductions and undertaking a comprehensive review of government administration functions and overhead costs to identify additional savings.

“Transfers to provinces will not be cut, transfers to individuals will not be cut and taxes will not be raised,” notes Brown.

For Leeds-Grenville the budget contains good news, he says.

“Personal income tax reductions will affect everyone. These are being achieved through adjustments to the federal tax brackets, enhancing the Working Income Tax Benefits for lower income earners, higher child benefits and lower taxes for low and middle income seniors,” he explains.

Community adjustment funding will continue to help communities hardest hit by the economic downturn.

“The budget provides increased funding for the Community Futures Program. This is a program that has been highly successful in Leeds-Grenville assisting new and smaller businesses,” says Brown. “This was an issue that I had addressed with the finance minister early in the New Year.”

Brown notes he is also pleased that the work-share extension has been continued.

“This program, that allows workers to remain on the job when there are work slowdowns, was used successfully by industries in Leeds-Grenville,” he comments.

The budget also provides significant support for small businesses, manufacturers and the cattle sector, he notes.

“Over the past few months I have heard a great deal from seniors and others concerned about their pensions. Last year our government took the first steps to reviewing pensions and this year we will consult with Canadians about larger reforms to Canada’s pension and retirement system in conjunction with provinces which regulate 90 per cent of the pensions in Canada.

Green jobs are targeted in the budget as well with significant new resources to support Canada’s transformation to a green energy economy.

Canada’s Economic Action plan established $1 billion over five years under the Clean Energy Fund to support research and development and $1 billion over five years through the Green Infrastructure Fund for investments in green infrastructure including sustainable energy projects.

There will now also be tax incentives for clean energy generation equipment.

“The budget, as always, includes a lot of details,” explains Brown.

“Overall though, residents of Leeds-Grenville said they didn’t want their benefits cut and they didn’t want their taxes raised.

“We have achieved that with this budget.”