Doherty, Zimmer critical of ambitious federal budget by Trudeau Liberals

Cariboo-Prince George Conservative MP Todd Doherty says a lot of the budget promises announced by the Liberals yesterday (Monday) will take too long to come to fruition.

Doherty told Vista Radio while investments into mental health and child care are good places to start, many businesses and sectors need immediate assistance.

“My concern is that we need the money now. Many grassroots organizations need those dollars now to help Canadians and our Crisis Centre here in Prince George is doing great work answering the phone and making sure someone was is there if they need to ask for help.”

He added while 30-billion dollars are being committed to a national child care program, that promise may never materialize.

“Many of the provinces won’t be kicking in until the second or third year, which there is a chance we might not be in this parliament by then. We’ll have an election by then so a lot of this stuff that is being promised may not even be realized.”

“I’d rather see a legacy of action rather than shiny documents that collect dust on shelves.”

Prince George-Northern Rockies MP, Bob Zimmer was a little more critical of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s message that the current approach by Ottawa has been working.

“We’ve seen a whole bunch of money gets spent – records amount of debt and deficit – $1.305 trillion dollars that Canadians have to pay for with very little to show for it.”

“The debt bill is coming and Canadians will have to pay for the interest and the principle of that debt. I think the circuit shock to most Canadians is going to be a big one once we finally realize what that is.”

Zimmer mentioned while funding boosts are needed to kick-start our economy, Canada’s vaccination rollout should still be top of mind.

“The way to get back to normal as soon as we can is to get vaccinations rolling out and get them the treatments they are asking for and then we will get back to normal like a lot of countries around the world are.”

In addition, the northern representative stated the budget rollout was fairly light when it came to infrastructure.

“To me, it just looked like a typical Liberal spend, spend, spend budget with very little to show for it. Normally, we see in tough economic times infrastructure spending gets ramped up a little bit and at least people understand the increased amount of expenditures from the government you see something that is getting built it will make life better after the tough time has passed.”

The federal Conservatives say the Liberals are engaged in “risky” spending, and they may vote against the budget.

Budget highlights include:

• Fall extension for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy as well as the Emergency Rent Subsidy
• 30-billion dollars for the start of a national child care program expected to be rolled out by the end of 2022
• Increase on the federal minimum wage to $15/hour (BC is going to $15.20 on June 1st)
• The Canada Recovery Hiring Program, which would run from June to November, proposes $595 million to support eligible businesses. The program would offset a portion of the extra costs employers have to deal with when reopening.