Way down at the end......

http://www.timminspress.com/2016/03/22/city-hopes-to-reap-budget-rewards

City hopes to reap budget rewards

By Alan S. Hale, The Daily Press

Tuesday, March 22, 2016 9:29:54 EDT PM

One of the most anticipated items for Timmins in Tuesday’s federal budget is the promised spending on repairing and upgrading infrastructure in communities across the country. The government announced that it will be spending $120 billion on infrastructure over the next 10 years.

TIMMINS - The Liberal federal government’s sunny ways were darkened a bit on Tuesday by the clouds hanging over the Canadian economy.

During the introduction of the new government’s first budget speech, Finance Minister Bill Morneau made reference more than once to the continued collapse in global oil prices and the hardship that has caused the economy across the country.

The way to reverse those problems, argued Morneau, was for the government to make investments in everything from upgrading the country’s aging infrastructure to spending millions toward the goal of making Canada a global centre of innovation.

“Today we begin a long-term plan that will use smart investments and an unwavering believe that progress is possible to ensure that Canada’s best days lie ahead,” said the Finance Minister. “To shape the future, we must invest in the future ... Our interest rates have never been lower, so we can borrow on excellent terms.”

And borrow they will. Although it went unsaid during the budget speech itself, the budget is expected to create a deficit of $2.9 billion — nearly three times as much as the Liberals promised it would be during the election.

But deficit or not, the budget was given a cautiously optimistic thumbs-up from the local politicians and the business community.

The president of the Northeastern Ontario Municipal Association, Mike Doody, said that from a municipal perspective the new budget is what communities have been looking for.

“The people who have been missing from the table until now have been the feds. Now they’re at the table,” said Doody.

MP Charlie Angus (NDP — Timmins-James Bay) said the Liberals’ first budget has its good ideas and its missteps, but he concluded there are enough good ideas there to work with going forward. What may need to change are the specifics of how those ideas will be implemented, he said, which is something the NDP will be working on.

The Timmins Chamber of Commerce also believes the budget is good one overall, and it contains several policies will benefit small business in Timmins.

“There are some elements of definite positivity and some elements of concerns. But we think that small businesses will see quite a bit to like in this budget,” the chamber’s manager of policy, Nick Stewart.

As for the larger-than-expected deficit, it was largely shrugged off by Doody who saw it as a necessity for getting the much-needed work done on infrastructure.

Angus said while the deficit is certainly more than was anticipated during the election, he thinks Canadians will still support it.

“I think the Canadian people have spoken, saying that they don’t mind the deficit on smart infrastructure. We’ll have to see how it goes,” said Angus.

The size of the deficit is an issue of concern, however, for the Timmins Chamber of Commerce, according to their manager of policy.

“It’s a pretty significant jump, and they’re not projecting a return to a surplus until 2019. That obviously raises some questions about the country’s fiscal footing and even more questions about how the government plans to eventually balance the budget,” said Stewart.

As was the case the provincial budget, one of the most anticipated items for Timmins is the promised spending on repairing and upgrading infrastructure in communities across the country. The government announced that it will be spending $120 billion on infrastructure over the next 10 years.

The spending of this money will be done in two phases. The first will start with money for public transit, water systems, affordable housing and improving existing infrastructure. The next phase, which will start after the second year, will begin funding the construction of new and more ambitious infrastructure projects.

While he said that Northern municipalities have much to be pleased about with the commitment of new money for infrastructure, Doody said the concern will be to make sure that funding is distributed equitably between large cities and smaller communities.

“The big worry has been that there won’t be a system where you can apply to get your fair share regardless of how big you are,” the NEOMA president said. “We’ve been telling them for some time that our fair share will go a long way in our communities that have been suffering from infrastructure deficits and get us to place where we can see the rainbow at the end of the storm.”

In that same vein, Angus said the NDP will be working to make sure that the distribution rules will reflect rural needs and priorities.

Another big-ticket item in the budget is the establishment of a new Canada Child Benefit, which the Liberal government said would be the most important new social program since universal healthcare.

Starting in July, families with children under 18 will receive a cheque for an amount of money which will be determined by a family’s circumstances. A single mother who earns $30,000 a year with on child under six years old will receive $6,400 per year, tax-free.

The last of the truly big new items in the budget was money for First Nations. The Liberals announced they would be spending $8.4 billion over five years to help Indigenous people participate in the modern economy through job training and other programs. Half of that money will go toward education and will be spent on reserve schools and hiring teachers.

Stewart said the chamber of commerce applauds this policy.

“One of the largest issues for Timmins businesses are workforce-related. One of the things we’ve long felt is that there is obviously some room for the Aboriginal population to become really engaged in that,” he said. “This budget really begins to address some of the underfunding that has been occurring on reserve.”

The government is also promising to spend $555 million over two years on health care inside First Nations by improving nursing stations and residences for health-care workers in those communities. The Mushkegowuk Council has long complained about the inadequacy of the health-care system inside its communities, and the nursing stations were criticized as being unhelpful during the outbreak of rashes and sores in Kashechewan.

But Angus said the money being proposed is simply not enough to do what the government is promising. He said that it would require millions more than what is being put forward to make up for the existing gaps in the system.

“I don’t understand why they’re dropping the ball on this,” he said.

Some of the smaller promises in the budget specifically for Northern Ontario include a promise to extend Employment Insurance benefits in this region by an extra five weeks for a total of 20. The idea is to help areas of the country which has seen the unemployment rate increase in the past year.

The chamber of commerce believes this too is a smart move.

“We feel that this helps to recognize the burden that has been previously been placed on the region’s employers,” said Stewart.

Both the chamber and Angus also applauded promises to build more broadband Internet infrastructure and to extend the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit for another year.

What the chamber was disappointed it didn’t see in the budget was a promised decrease in the small business tax rate, which the government promised during the election.

What disappointed Angus was a complete lack of mention of either funding for the Fednor program or the Ring of Fire.

“We’re being told that were going into debt and making all these ‘unsexy’ infrastructure announcements,” said Angus. “Doesn’t the Ring of Fire count as part of that? I was really surprised there was no mention of it.”