Balance Budget Faster, Legislate Debt Repayment and Avoid EI Tax Hike

TORONTO: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) responded today to the federal government’s economic update, calling for a faster plan to eliminate the deficit and for a legislated debt repayment schedule.

CTF Federal Director, Kevin Gaudet, said “It’s simple. We’re broke. It is time to see a serious commitment to belt-tightening on the spending front.”

The Fall fiscal update confirmed that due to even higher spending, the deficit for 2009-10 came in at $55.6 billion, the largest in history and even higher than planned. Due to projected growth in tax revenue the deficit will start to decline next year. The Harper government is projecting seven years of deficits with plans for a balanced budget in 2015-16. Over that period the government will have added another $171 billion to the federal debt. That amounts to having borrowed $10,277 for each tax filer in Canada.

Gaudet said, “deficits of today are the tax hikes of tomorrow. A family of four tax-filers will have to pay off almost $41,000 due to this spending binge.”

The CTF is calling on the federal government to:

• Balance the budget over two years;
• Legislate a debt repayment schedule; and,
• Reduce spending in non-insurance EI programs to avoid the EI tax hike planned for January 1st.

Last Fall the CTF released a plan detailing how the government could balance the budget over three years.