Alternative Federal Budget 2005

In anticipation of this week's federal budget release, you might be interested in viewing an alternative budget. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has released its Alternative Federal Budget 2005.

A voice in public policy debates, the CCPA is an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social and economic justice. The National (Ottawa) Office has three ongoing projects: the Education Project, the Trade and Investment Research Project, and the Alternative Federal Budget Project.

The Alternative Budget is the CCPA's way of offering a different opinion on how the federal budget -- that is, your tax dollars -- should be spent. In this year's Alternative Budget, the CCPA critizes the federal government's "U-shaped" budget surplus, that being one in which surpluses are projected in the current fiscal year, dropping off precipitously, and then recurring again somewhere down the road. Rather, the CCPA claims that the federal government has forseeable surpluses.

"The federal government will have an estimated $45 billion in surplus over the next three years – money that could significantly reduce poverty and inequalities in Canada and lay to rest overheated squabbles over cash transfers to the provinces, says the 2005 Alternative Federal Budget (AFB)."

The CCPA also critiques where the government is spending its dollars, indicating that the budget could do more to improve federal/provincial relations and make good on past promises to provide a more equitable split between deficit reduction and spending on social programs.

"In order to begin the critical process of rebuilding the federation and repairing fragile federal-provincial relations, the AFB would:

- assure adequate funding for the Canada Social Transfer (CST) by increasing funding for the transfer by more than $13 billion over the next 3 years;

- build in accountability and transparency by dividing the social transfer into separate Social Transfer and Post-Secondary Education funds and having a separate envelope for each social item within the CST; and

- attack poverty in Canada by increasing the Canada Child Tax Benefit, the GST credit, creating a national child care program, enhancing the EI program, creating affordable housing, increasing OAS and GIS benefits and providing significant funds to address the needs of Aboriginal communities."

For more information on the Alternative Federal Budget 2005 and the CCPA, please see:
http://www.policyalternatives.ca