Federal workers, the CBC and the penny bore the brunt of a slimmed-down federal budget tabled in Ottawa last week.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told the House of Commons that his 2012 budget was geared toward “jobs, growth and long-term prosperity.”
The plan, tabled Thursday, March 29, will reduce the budget by two per cent, or $5.2 billion, and shed 19,200 federal jobs. Flaherty vowed to not raise taxes and said the government could balance its books as soon as 2015.
Government travel will be reduced in favour of video-conferencing, large documents will be released in electronic form and pennies, each of which costs about one and a half cents to produce, will be eliminated. Another move is to gradually delay Old Age Security eligibility to age 67 starting in 2023. Anyone 54 or older will be unaffected.
Longer careers could mean less opportunity for young people, addressed by investments in skills training and “sunrise industries,” and renewed federal spending in research and development.
Federal department cuts include more than $300 million from agriculture, a similar figure from health, $191 million from Canadian Heritage—including $115 million from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)—and $225 million from Canada Revenue Agency. The government also plans to lop $1.1 billion from national defence.
The Conservatives will spend money on renewing the Canadian Coast Guard fleet and North Vancouver shipyards have a strong chance of winning some of that work.
“It’s not dramatic in the cuts that some of us had expected,” said John Weston, MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country. The long-term nature of Flaherty’s plan, he said, reflected the stability of a majority government that doesn’t have its eye on an upcoming election.
