Letter to the Editor: federal Liberal budget is an NDP budget

This Letter to the Editor is in response to Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s budget tabled on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018.

This is an NDP budget.

There is a $21.5 billion in new spending over 6 years. This strategy has created 600,000 new jobs in the past 2 years and the lowest unemployment rates in more than 40 years.

There is a fiscal plan to strengthen the economy by promoting gender equality & bringing more women into the workforce. $1.2 billion over 5 years for parental leave (5 weeks extra leave for two-parent families under the EI Parental Sharing Benefit (June 2019). $500 million over 5 years and anti-harassment initiatives. $10 million over 5 years for an RCMP unit to review 25,000 cases of sex assault deemed “unfounded.” $30 million over 3 years to promote women and girls’ participation in sport.

$100 million over 5 years to develop rural broadband innovation, including low-earth-orbit satellites. A $1.3 billion over 5 years to conserve land, waterways and wildlife and protect species at risk. A $750 million over 5 years to improve cyber security and $231 million to address the opioid crisis. $173 million to address irregular border-crossings and asylum seekers.

Six new judges for Ontario are going to be added to help ease court backlogs.

A new advisory council is created to look at options for creating a new national pharmacare.

Quite frankly, the liberal team knows that progressive measures work for all.

Mario Leclerc
Candidate SDSG Liberal nomination (former NDP candidate, Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry)