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)