"Turning Surplus to Slush"

February 19, 2003

By now, you’ve undoubtedly seen extensive media coverage on the federal Liberal government’s annual budget speech.  As the media pundits, economic “experts” and politicians from all levels of government put in their “two cents worth”, it gets rather difficult to determine what the federal budget was really all about. 

To provide some perspective on the budget, here are a few basic points that will help you to understand the financial objectives of the federal government. 

1.             Jean Chrétien is retiring in less than a year and he has no “legacy” to show for his decade as Prime Minister.  He wants history to remember him for something other than Shawinigate.  Though legacies can be expensive, Mr. Chrétien has the power to tax Canadians so he can attempt to buy one. 

2.             Finance Minister John Manley is hoping to give his predecessor, Paul Martin, a run for his money in the Liberal leadership race.  To do that, he must first be seen as somehow “different” from Mr. Martin.  Since Mr. Martin attempts to fashion himself as fiscally conservative, that leaves Mr. Manley with no other alternative than to appear as  socially compassionate.  It certainly doesn’t hurt Mr. Manley’s leadership hopes when he is able to throw around lots of money to capture the support of his caucus and his party. 

3.             Given the Liberal habit of calling elections every few years when they could wait as long as five, the next general election could be as early as next year.  That means there’s not much time left for the government to kickstart its traditional spending spree leading up to election day. 

So it was under these political conditions that Mr. Manley tabled his first federal budget this week.  Not surprisingly, taxpayers were the big losers.  In all, this budget increases federal program spending by $14.3-billion, but does absolutely nothing to lower the tax burden of hard-working Canadians.  

Though the government did acknowledge that excessive Employment Insurance premiums are racking up multi-billion-dollar surpluses, a Canadian worker will see a reduction in their EI premiums of about forty dollars per year by 2004! 

And while our cash-starved military gets just $800-million, the budget provides billions for new grandiose bureaucratic programs.  Canadians justifiably don’t trust the Liberals to manage these new programs in light of the billions of tax dollars mismanaged through the firearms registry, ludicrous advertising contracts and the HRDC billion dollar boondoggle.   

                The federal government continues to make great fanfare of the fact that Canada no longer carries an annual deficit.  While spending beyond your means is fiscally irresponsible, taxing beyond your needs is equally offensive.  A budget surplus is nothing more than overtaxation.  

Federal government surpluses were collected on the backs of taxpayers.  With the federal deficit eliminated, Canadians should have expected substantial tax relief.  Instead, they’re footing the bill for the personal agendas of Mr. Chrétien and Mr. Manley. 

When Canadians demanded that Mr. Manley do something about the federal surplus, they didn’t intend for him to use it as a taxpayer-funded Liberal slush fund.