Last week, the Federal Government introduced its budget to the House of Commons. Jim Flaherty, the minister of Finance, had to make some serious decisions based on the global economy and the ideology of his political party. Here is a pretty cool summary developed by the Globe and Mail that explains where the Government has cut spending and where they will be increasing spending: Globe & Mail Infographic.
Once you are pretty comfortable with what has been cut and what has not, try your turn at creating a budget. How do you ensure the GDP remains consistent or better than that of other countries? Is this important? What should our priorities be? Try creating a budget using the Centre for Policy Alternatives software and then comment on what decisions you made. Please keep in mind that both Econ and Grade 9 students will be participating, so try and include everyone.
Please be sure to comment on the posts of others. Blogging must be completed by Wednesday, April 4th at 11:59 CST.
Henderson Hallway 
I made a lot of money from taxes, especially the carbon tax. I never really realized how important taxes are to the budget, and even though $30/ton doesn't seem like much, it added over $14 billion per year. One thing I didn't understand was how all the numbers increased from year to year. Some other decisions I made were the $10/day childcare benefit, rebuilding Canada, modernizing Canadian broadband, cancelling fossil fuel support, promote "eco-energy", carbon tax refund, cut military spending, reduce tuition, create income tested grants, deferred college and university maintenance, stop violence against women, and inheritance tax. I checked all of the boxes under post-secondary because I think that having more people graduate from university and getting better jobs is an important part of increasing our GDP. Indeed, one of the "accomplishments" of my budget was that less people were unemployed and less student debt. It also said that I was combating climate change and made all Canadian families have affordable child care. One thing that I probably shouldn't have ignored were the native people on reserves, and I think Canada already gets enough criticism for Aboriginal human rights abuses without me as prime minister. I also spent a lot more than the Government plan, and I ended up with a $44 billion dollar deficit instead of the planned $28 billion one. Overall, I think that although I spent a bit too much and didn’t do much for the Aboriginal people, this was an interesting activity and I gained a lot of insight into where all our tax money goes. I’m glad Mr. Henderson showed us this; it was very amusing (and educational) to play around with Canada’s budget.
In my budget, I managed to have no deficit by the time we reached 2014 and I also kept the unemployment rate below 6.5%. I added a $3o/ton carbon tax and eliminated stock options deductions (which got rid of tax loopholes) and also reinstated the tax on oil & gas and financial iundustries. I had a bit of a hard time trying to figure out what tax related stuff should go in my budget since I'm not that familiar with it, so I was basically just trying to keep my costs down. I am above the government plan in terms of money for the first year but eventually I end up with no deficit. I also added healthcare and universal pharmacare, which could potentially decrease unemployment rates, because I think it's important for everyone to be healthy and not have to base their health on the amount of money they make. Maybe the only reason they aren't able to make money is because they aren't able to get quality health care and the medicie they need? As well, I gave all families affordable childcare, which will enable a lot more people who have to stay home evryday with their kids to find a job and start working, again decreasing unemployment rates. Finally, I lowered student tuition levels. Part of the reason there are high unemployment rates is because some families can't afford to send their kids to school. By lowering tuition, more kids can attend school and get jobs which will lower unemployment rates and also enable them to get an income and take care of themselves and/or families.
The basis for the budget I created is on education, the future, and eliminating the deficit. Like Michael, I also invested in all the education categories because by emphasizing education today, we increase the potential for a better and more stable GDP by creating greater revenue through such things as innovation. A higher GDP allows a country to spend and evenly distribute more money towards programs that will improve and support the country. I decided to fund First Nations schooling and living conditions because it is important that we acknowledge First Nations and honor the treaties that were signed hundreds of years ago. As well, improving First Nations schooling can contribute to establishing a larger workforce and successful entrepreneurs that could augment Canada’s revenue. I also tried to reduce poverty by increasing the child tax benefit and providing affordable child care permitting parents to support their families. To me, sustainability is essential in preserving the planet for future generations. By implementing many environmental programs, Canadians are encouraged to produce less pollution therefore creating a “greener” environment. Similarly, I invested in the green skills initiative to promote eco-awareness and try to popularize the renewable energy industry while simultaneously improving the GDP. To fund these programs, I tried to tax the categories that could afford the loss. Other programs I supported were: universal pharmacare, military spending cuts, and stopping violence against women. With the decisions I made, the deficit was eliminated by 2014. Unfortunately the unemployment rate increased a little each year. I realized that it is very difficult to balance all the variables the budget includes. Through this activity, I now understand and have some compassion for the difficult budget decisions the government has to make.http://www.policyalternatives.ca/MyBudgetSummary.htm?BudName=My Budget Name&Acomp=ECE|RevCarbTax|Pharma|Tuit|CCTB|Def0&Items=INACed|FNWater|ECE|Ogsub|EcoEn|RevCarbTax|Pharma|Def911|Tuit|Grants|EduBld|CCTB|GreenSkl|Rev35Pers|RevCapGain|RevOilGasT|RevInher|WomVio
I started this project out a little apprehensive, because quite honestly I don't think I can budget very well. But it was interesting to try and work out what to spend and how to spend it according to the issues that are important to me, but may not necessarily be as important to the government. For starters, I looked at the taxes. Like Michael said, it didn't really hit me just how much the country needs taxes to run until I looked at my budget and realized it needed more money. I chose to implement a 30$ per ton carbon tax, which won't have much effect on the country right now but in later years will greatly decrease our deficit. I moved to improve the drinking water and housing on reserves because while some are in good condition, some are appalling and that needs to change. I also moved to cancel the fossil fuel subsidies, which would save us 1345 million and and also help the environment. I moved for a strategy that will improve affordable housing and also help to stop violence against women, which together would cost 2070 million, but seeing as they would help a lot of Canadian citizens live better lives I believe it'd be worth it. Also I moved to reinstate the 28% tax on oil, gas and financial industries, which would decrease our deficit by 2000 million now and 3000 million in later years. My unemployment rates weren't as good as the government's, but I kept them all under 7.2. My deficit was slightly better than the government's, though, by 2014-2015 being at 10$ instead of -8$. It was interesting in the end to compare my priorities with the government's.
The outcomes of my budget were that I addressed the Aborginal housing crisis by spending money on First Nations schooling and housing. I chose this because it is important for Canada to educate everyone including Aboriginals, by educating them, we are giving them a brighter future. I chose to put Universal Pharamacare on my budget as well because I think it is important that every Canadian doesn't have to pay for their prescriptions. As you get older, the number of prescriptions that you might need to take would probably increase and if you have to pay out of your own money, it can be very expensive. By cutting the cost, we are allowing our Canadians to not worry so much about them not being able to afford all their prescriptions that keep them healthy. Education was one of my main goals and that is why i chose reducing tuition to 1992 levels. We want students to actually go to university and learn, so that they can be equipped with the necessary information so that they will be able to live comfortable lives when they are older. By eliminating the crushing student debt, we are allowing students to live up to their full potential. Another important issue was to increase Canada's child tax benefit to $5,400/child because we don't want to have child poverty in Canada. We as Canadians, should want for our children to live good and productive lives and we are doing this by driving down child poverty. Green Skills Initiative, is an important thing because we need to reduce our waste. To keep Canada clean, green and pretty, Canadians need to be equipped with the necessary skills that they need to know about our environment. Reducing, reusing and recycling are just some of the things that we could do. For starters we can cut back on the amount of things that we throw out. http://www.policyalternatives.ca/MyBudgetSummary.htm?BudName=My%20BudgeGraceAdegunj'&Acomp=FNHous|Pharma|Tuit|CCTB&Items=INACed|FNHous|Ogsub|EcoEn|Pharma|Tuit|CCTB|GreenSkl|RevOilGasT
Creating my budget I found that for each decision I made, there were advantageous and disadvantagous problems in result, causing my time spent reviewing my decisions to be rather extended. Trying to acheive the best results was rather difficult as the more programs I funded, the more taxes I had to apply to maintain a rather small deficit by 2014. I made the decision of supporting childcare and post-secondary education the most, my reasoning that long-term sustainability relies heavily on their decisions, being educated when dealing with these conflicts at hand. Prioritizing the two groups, I was able to have affordable childcare for all families, ridding students of crushing debt at the same time. Despite my spending in these areas though I covered a few other conflicts such as employment and healthcare, dropping the unemployment rates under 6.5% and providing universal pharmacare. I went as far as funding the the Canadian Development Bank and the Rebuild Canada Program for a diverse and sustainable future Canada, not without having to increase taxes a small amount. Well the $30/ton carbon tax provided me with a sufficent amount of funding, even opening the opportunity to break the deficit by 2014, I chose a variety of other taxes that would achieve the same sucess in a year or two more because I thought it would be too harsh a tax, that would not impress the public greatly. Finishing my budget, it was slightly higer at the first year, though gradually decreased and rid Canada of its current deficit and achieve a great deal in a few years.
In the taxes section, I checked off everything except for financial activities tax. I thought that if someone owns a corporation or makes over $250 000/year, they should be alright as long as the taxes aren't ridiculous. The money received is also very good to gain too. When it came to the environment, I made sure to make the 30% tax on carbon. I believe that people should really start taking initiative over our environment, so we need to give them a little bit of an incentive. I also expanded the "ecoenergy" home efficiency program. I did not, however, choose the green skills initiative because I believe that most of our pollution comes from huge corporations and cars. Taxation can help climate change by penalizing carbon emitters. Regarding education, I decided that I would choose to reduce tuitions to the the 1992 levels and spend on First Nation schooling. I strongly believe that the amount of money or a person's inherited social class should not determine one's opportunity (that is also partly why I decided to enact the inheritance tax). Finally, in order to improve the Canadian healthcare without increasing expenses, I decided to improve drinking water and housing on reserves, as well as funding community healthcare and universal pharmacare. The inability to purchase medications required for good health is simply unfair. Also, all citizens should have access to proper housing and clean water. In the beginning, my deficit was -$18 billion, but at the end of the chart it came up to $28 billion. My unemployment rate was a little high, going from 7% to 7.6%. In the end, I was satisfied with the results.
I found I found it profoundly stupefying how difficult it was to a) pick and choose the changes I wanted within the budget and b) how fast money disappears. For a long time, First Nations always received the short end of the stick. So from the Aboriginals' category, I chose better/more housing because as much as it would be great to give them all education and though it was cheaper than housing, I believe that giving a proper place to live would be a good start for the ones who do not have anything.The ReBuild Canada program is something that I want to see happen in Canada. Some may say it is unnecessary and say that our infrastructure and our city itself is fine, but I think that it will eventually have to get fixed at some point. So why not now? Especially when we can make our city operate more smoothly and when our climate is worse than ever, and therefore our city needs to be more environmentally friendly? I also chose the $30/ton Carbon tax like Megan, and I completely agree with her opinion. In the next two years, it doesn't save any money whatsoever, but once it gets running, Canada's going to be saving a lot of money. As a student, especially in a preparatory school, I took notice of how much we learn in comparison to those who simply cannot afford it, which is why I chose reducing tuition fees to 1992 levels. In this economy, a lot of people have difficulty with keeping up with the ever-rising fees. If we go back down to the 1992 levels, more people can be learning at school, which will help them for a better future, especially for employment. As Michael and Megan both mentioned, I found that the importance of taxes in terms of retaining the Canadian population's money, rather than losing it, which is why I chose to make people who make 250 000 dollars per year pay 35% taxes. Though wealthy people may not like it, the truth is, people who are less fortunate do not have the money to pay 35% of their income as taxes, but that doesn't mean they don't work hard, but rather that they aren't in the position to make 250 000. If wealthy people can't give their fair share of taxes, then wouldn't be very even between the citizens of Canada no matter how much money the make.Overall, I got rid of the deficits for 2014, kept the unemployment rate under 6.5%, fixed climate change, student debt and housing for Aboriginals. I spent way more money than Canada for this year and the next, but saved a lot for 2015. Unfortunately, it's the Canadian Government that decides everything, but I will definitely look out for the changes that Canada will make in the next couple of years.
The two main focuses of my budget were the environment and education. I wanted to create a budget that supported the idea of a sustainable lifestyle and educated future generations. Most resources we use to create products are finite. In order to keep manufacturing these products, we need to create a sustainable environment. I invested in the environment categories, as well as the green skills initiative and the rebuild Canada program. This would create a more eco-friendly lifestyle and a good start to a sustainable lifestyle. Like Michael and Jessica, I also invested in all of the education categories. More people getting a higher level of education and getting better jobs is important in increasing our GDP. The education of First Nations people is also very important because they are a big part of Canada and should not be overlooked. I funded First Nations schooling because Canada must do our part to uphold the treaties we signed. Some of the other categories I invested in were stopping violence against women, the increase Canada child tax benefit and military spending back to pre-2001 level. To support all of my choices, I had to implement a lot of taxes. I “targeted” industries that polluted our earth as well as the 1%. Some of my outcomes were finally combatting climate change, driving down child poverty, no more crushing student debt and no deficit in 2014. There were so many different causes to fund, it was hard to choose only some of them. I agree with Jessica, now I understand and have some compassion for the difficult budget decisions the government has to make.
The Main focus of my budget was to tax the rich and give to the poor (like Robin Hood…..kinda). Aswell as increasing enviornmental initiatives i was able to increase broad band cause hey, who dosnt like broad band. When faced with aboriginal problems i chose what i thought was the most important of the three housing. Another of the themes of my budget was trying to help out families with pharmicutical health care parent support and schooling.i also decreased military funding gave us no deficit in 2014 stopped violence against women and instated a carbon tax. I never knew how hard it was to create a budget
My main focus for my Budge was to clean up the environemnt, education, and to reduce taxes, and also tax the rich. Our world is the most important thing to the human population. We are stripping our worlds natural resources away which is causing harm to our environment. We are not using all of our natural resources efficiently. I added "ecoEnergy" for building new homes to reduces pollution and to keep costs down. I added a $30/ton carbon tax and also eliminated stock options deductions. This will get rid of tax loopholes. As gas prices keep rising i added on a 28% tax oil and gas, so the government would get some money back. I also added on the program to Rebuild Canada's program. This will improve the functionality of our cities. It was quite difficult to balance both the budget and the unemployment rate. Luckily my unemployment rate is either below the government's plan or just even. It will take time for the deficit to come up, but by 2014 there will be no deficit. Finally, I lowered student tuition levels.By doing this, this will lower the high unemployment rates.While some families can not afford to send their children to school this will help them out. By lower tuition more kids can get an education, and in the future get jobs.
The direction I took in building and balancing the budget varied quite a bit. Maintaining a relatively low budget expenditure would obviously not tackle a fair number of the issues present in Canada. After a lot of experimentation, I identified interesting relationships between the budget and the unemployment rates. I found that increasing corporate taxes increased unemployment rates. Large corporations would struggle to thrive under heavy taxes because taxes tend to stunt the creation of new jobs. With this in mind, I began with selecting the education category. Jessica raised the idea of generating revenue from innovation to construct a strong and stable GDP. I believe this to be quite true to fortify a secured GDP in which unemployment is minimized and where jobs, production, and growth are maximized. A good GDP reflects a strong economy. After I chose to reduce tuition, create income tested grants for (post secondary) students, and to afford schooling to Aboriginals, I pointed my budget at healthcare. With 'Universal Pharmacare,' it allows Canadians to not pay 'out-of-pocket' for prescriptions and also reduce costs for prescription medicines. Unemployment is also brought down a good 0.2-0.3%. I also addressed the Aboriginal housing crisis, as well as improving drinking water within their communities. It is important that their issues are not ignored in order to provide a better standard of living. My fourth priority was the environment. Most obviously, the carbon tax seems to be a popular way to enlarge the budget, as seen in the decisions of my peers. In turn, this will hopefully promise to reduce carbon emissions. As part of my strategy, I then added taxes accordingly at the end in order to cover the costs of my priorities. To keep unemployment rates rather low, I hesitated in selecting a lot of taxes. One of the taxes I chose was the 28% tax on oil/gas and financial industries which I noticed did not drastically alter unemployment. My final deficit was lower than that of 2012-2013 but did improve greatly over the following years until there was no deficit in 2014, but rather a surplus of $6 billion. Similar to Josh, I did manage to keep unemployment for 2012-2013 below 6.4%. It appeared to be a short term gain however, due to the fact that the unemployment rates grew in following years after reaching this low. With a deficit of -$34 billion in 2012-2013, I was at least able to achieve six outcomes including addressing the Aboriginal housing crisis, fighting climate change, as well as removing crushing student debt. From my perspective, I chose Canada's priorities to focus on Aboriginal issues, the environment, education, and healthcare. I felt that by ensuring a better standard of living, it would in turn also benefit through fueling a thriving economy.
In my budget I focused on lowering the cost of child care and prescription medications, decreasing child poverty, and decreasing unemployment. I spent money on improving drinking water on First Nations reserves, as having clean water is a fundamental right. Money was allocated towards affordable housing, as the more people we get off the street, the less issues we will have with crime in our cities. I increased the Canada Child Tax Benefit to help ease the financial burden on families. Eliminated some of the money spent on the Military, as I don't believe in war and fighting and don't think we should be spending money on that when we could be spending money improving people's lives. I increased international development aid, since I feel it is our responsibility as a developed country to help those less fortunate than us. I eliminated some taxes on corporations, because I think that without entrepreneurs, our society would go nowhere. It is essential that we support people who take risks to benefit themselves, because in turn they benefit our economy. I have a deficit, but I think it's necessary in order to reach all of my budgeting goals.Zoe F.http://www.policyalternatives.ca/MyBudgetSummary.htm?BudName=Zoe%27s%20Budget&Acomp=ECE|Pharma|CCTB|RevStockOp|UR65&Items=FNWater|ECE|Ogsub|ComHlth|Pharma|Hous|Def911|ODA|NSEst|CCTB|RevStockOp|RevFinAct|RevInher|WomVio
In my budget, I focused a lot on driving down child poverty, I addressed the Aboriginal housing crisis, made sure that all Canadians have affordable child care, and because of these choices, the deficit would be gone by 2014. With only two years left, I figured it would be ok. I focused primarily on child care and child poverty because children should not be on the streets, as well as they should have someone taking care of them indefinitely. It is not beneficial for them to grow up in an unsecured environment, and one of the major issues today is that there is not enough affordable child care available, which means there is a lack of it. I also discarded the money being spent on the military because there is way too much money being spent on that, when I believe it could be used for more useful purposes. I also focused on seniors, and also focused on the Green Skills initiative. Although my deficit is not completely gone until 2014, I believe that these are very favourable choices.
My budget was vary simple, only spend money on issues that help our country for the future. For example i believe the goverment should cut back on the amount of money spent on aboriginal communities, and instead invest that money into the enviroment i.e the eco energy program. I also believe that the goverment should keep investing in education (no cut backs), and Health care (Community and Universal). I was vary skeptical about investing money into EI, because canada already has good employment insurance, and if we aren't carefull, this could become a money pit. My biggest change to the budjet was with the taxes. I believe that coporations chould be taxed more, especialy those who pollute. At thend my budget cut our deficit down to 21 for 12-13, the country made $5 in 2014, and made $19 in 2015.
I based my budget on the factors of education and healthcare, but my main goal was to bring the country out of debt. By adding a carbon tax and spending our money carefully we could easily have 0 deficit financing by 2014 and become a greener environment. I put a lot of my focus on secondary and post secondary education, poverty and affordable housing, as I strongly believe that the government should be investing money and energy into these areas. I was skeptical however with spending large amounts of money on our military, or stopping violence against woman, not that I am opposed to that idea, I just don't believe that throwing tons of money at it is going to solve anything. Going green is becoming a more obvious solution to half of our problems throughout the world today, so I was 100% confident with investing in helping maintain and sustain our environment. With a budget outline, such as the one I created, I think much of our crises could be solved quick and efficiently.
In my budget I focused on combatting climate change and reducing student debt. I believe that it is important to address the problem of global warming that is getting worse every day. By implementing a $30/ton carbon tax and expanding an ‘Ecoenergy’ home efficiency program, it allows us to take a step closer to maintaining a healthy environment and punishing those that pollute the atmosphere through carbon tax. By reducing tuition to 1992 levels, it takes a load off the students’ shoulders as student debt is becoming an increasing problem – it limits many students their post-grad options due to not being able to afford it. I also implemented a 35% income tax rate on people that make over $250,000 a year because there is less than 1% of the Canadian population that makes that much money and it would be for the greater good if they had to pay more tax instead of taxing poor families even more.
I really enjoyed participating in this activity and learning how hard it really is to try and fit all your ideas into a budget. Like Michael I made a lot of money through taxes, I am not sure how the people of Canada would react to this, but I would hope they realize they are contributing to the greater good of our country. I really focused on healthcare in my budget checking off both boxes. Affordable housing is also was a key point in my budget. Furthermore it was important to reduce the cost of post-secondary education back to 1992 levels. This opens the door for more students to earn an education that cannot afford it. My budget also gave seniors some benefits. Seniors are now living longer than ever, and they might not have saved enough money for their retirement. By adding this to the budget it will eliminate poverty in seniors. I really enjoyed this survey, and hope we do more interactive projects like this in the future.
While I was creating my budget and trying to get better then what the Canadian government did, I concluded that by 2014-2015 I would be +11 million dollars. It was quite hard as I had to sacrifice the amount of money that we made this year very low as I wanted healthcare and education to be a big part of my budget. I was very hard for me to decide on what taxes I should keep and what taxes I should not keep. I decided on keeping some taxes as the government was running short on money. I was strong on selecting to have taxes on polluting the environment as it is a way that our country can be a little eco friendly. I also got attracted by the ideas of rebuilding Canada and to expand the eco house project. It was also hard to control the unemployment rate in Canada but I managed to keep my rate at 5.8% and then it slowly increased as projects got completed.I also thought that everyone should have rights so I gave some money towards stopping violence towards women. Everyone is helpful in a peaceful environment. Towards education I gave all the options possible because if there is more education flowing through the country then more people will get jobs and making the overall public smarter lowering the unemployment rate. I believe that if people have the time to study then the government should have the time to supply jobs for that education. If I was Prime Minister then I think I would have many types of taxes to pay but it would end up that the country would start coming out of losing money and end up earning money instead.
I decided to improve drinking water and housing on First Nations Reserves because they don’t have good drinking water and housing and I think that everyone deserves clean water and a good house, especially since the British people invaded Canada and sent the First Nations to live on low-quality land a long time ago. I also decided to have community health care and universal Pharmacare because health care is essential to everyone and without it, we would have a greater chance of getting sick and dying. I think an affordable housing strategy is important because I think everyone should have a home to live in. If we had an affordable housing strategy, more people would be able to buy a home and there wouldn’t be as many people living on the street. I also made more money by reducing to military spending back to pre-2001 levels. I think we don’t need to spend more money on military weapons. Even though they are cool and fun to play around with, it would be easier to solve conflicts between countries by talking things out and having a peaceful discussion instead of shooting each other with cool guns and tanks. I reduced tuition levels to 1992 levels because I think that education is important. If we made it cheaper, then more people will be able to afford it, leading to more educated people who will be able to make money. If these educated people get into the Canadian government, then they will be able to make better decisions that will have a positive effect on Canada’s future. I also decided to stop violence against women because too many women are abused and are afraid to speak up about it. If we had a program that would help stop violence against women, then more women would want to speak up about their abuse and less women would be abused. I made some more money by reinstating the 28% tax on oil and gas and financial industries. People these days are using way too much oil and gas to make a bunch of useless stuff, especially since we only have a limited amount of natural resources on our Earth. If we taxed these oil and gas and financial industries, then they would use less oil and gas because they won’t want to pay the 28% tax. This would lead to more oil and gas left on our planet which would lead to more oil and gas left behind for future use. I made a lot of money by implementing a $30/ ton carbon tax. We need to take care of the environment and stop polluting the environment with carbon from our countless factories. If we had the carbon tax, then the owners of the companies wouldn’t want to pay that tax which would lead to less carbon polluting the Earth. In conclusion, I really enjoyed creating my own budget!
Most of the decisions I made within my budget were to alleviate citizen’s financial struggles. I eliminated the tax loophole by eliminating stock option reductions for a loss of $877 million. I also incorporated a financial activities tax that will contribute approximately $4410 million to Canada’s revenue.As far as spending goes with regards to the military, I think it should return back to pre-2001 spending. At least until the county is able to financially support new and concise idea that the military will offer. Progressive funding to the current military standard has not changed anything. As far as the majority of the equipment, battle tactics and policies are concerned, nothing seems to have changed the past few decades. There should be a prominent focus on the equipment they have now and ways to effectively improve it.The country should also focus on crushing student debt and offering affordable child care for all canadians. The $10 a day childcare offers more people opportunity to join the work force and $3681 million towards Canada’s GDP.The country should also reduce tuition to the 1992 level, increasing spending by $1300 million, but supporting people to attend post-secondary school. The reduction will also hopefully reduce student loans and a large percentage of financial instability in society.I think that in order to ensure that GDP remains consistent, people must be able to be functioning members of society and help to support it financially. Living needs to be affordable for them, especially in the younger years of their adult hood and career. Child care should be affordable so that they can participate in the work force, and tuition should be reduced so that they can afford to attend post secondary education.
When I was creating my budget, I was focussing on many things. I realized that the Canadian government could use some help when maintaining their budget plan. Firstly, I wanted to start to tax larger corporations back to level of 21% where it was before. Along with that, I believe what Steven said is also correct which is increasing tax on corporations that pollute more is a better idea. The taxing doesn't stop there with me, I believe we should start to raise the tax on the population who makes $250,000 per year or more, this will then put the lower income population in a better position for a greater standard of living. When it came to spending, the first thing that I noticed was the affordable housing strategy. As we know, the prices of housing is increasing making it very difficult for people to buy their own house. Along with that, I believe that we should cut military spending to how it was pre-2001, that is not to say that I think that the purchasing of new F-35 Fighter jets is a bad idea. (Think of it this way: you bought a car in the 80's, its now 2012 and time to upgrade, not only for the safety of our pilots, but also for the safety of Canadians.) Along with that, I would also like to see more spending in Universal Health Care. With all of these decisions I have made, it will benefit our Canadian society in many ways such as cutting the deficit in 12-13 by $12 and also cutting the deficit entirely in 2014 and 2015. Along with that, no canadian will have to pay out of their pockets for prescriptions.
For my budget, I mainly focused on increasing taxes in the short term. I decided that increasing the taxes would be beneficial to the economy but realistically once the budget is balanced and there is a surplus, the government should review tax rates with the hopes of reducing them. I decided that it was also important to provide affordable childcare and housing strategies to all Canadians. One huge investment I wanted to take part in is the ReBuild Canada program, as this plan will benefit Canada’s future in the long run. I found it was important to implement a carbon tax and also decrease military spending, as it would help reduce deficit within the community. Spending more money on healthcare is a must. I wish to try and eliminate problems associated with hallway medicine and long waiting lists to see doctors or specialists, especially if someone has a life threatening or serious illnesses that needs immediate treatment. Finally, I increased the Canada Child Tax Benefit to $5,400 per child because this tax directly aids those children living in poverty. Overall, with my budget I managed to provide affordable childcare for all Canadians, reduced unemployment rates to fewer than 6.5%, combated climate change, reduced child poverty and had no deficit in 2014.http://www.policyalternatives.ca/MyBudgetSummary.htm?BudName=Hayleigh's%20Budget&Acomp=ECE|RevCarbTax|Pharma|CCTB|UR65|Def0&Items=ECE|GSTToCity|RevCarbTax|ComHlth|Pharma|Hous|Def911|NSEst|CCTB|Rev35Pers|RevCorp21|RevOilGasT
Although the results of my budget were a little "wonky" I was for the most part satisfied with what I was able to accomplish, while ending up with lower unemployments rates and a budget that would have no deficit by 2014. Some of the things that could be considered "achievements" or the focuses in my budget would be working towards finding ways to end climate change, lowering the rates of childhood poverty, and allowing Canadians to have prescriptions covered opposed to paying out of their pocket. Although I didn't alter the initial budget severely I found I was able to make changes that reflected my personal views, and preferences on how the governments money would be best spent. Keeping in mind that I was trying to keep unemployment rates low and the budget relatively balanced I wasn't able to spend money on everything I would have liked to, but hopefully with the changes I have made positive results will be seen, and further changes can be made to the budget in the future regarding the other issues. When you look at the budget you will be able to see the things I chose to spend money on as well as revenue. The projects I prioritized highest would be supporting children, and the affordable housing project. I also felt strongly about reducing the amount of money spent on the military and reinstating the 28% tax on oil, gas and financial industries. Hopefully in the future the government can work toward finding ways to end all of these problems, but until then these were just a few of my suggestions.Kate
In the budget I have created I intend to combat climate change and poverty. I intend to do this by allowing those with children to have childcare for a mere $10. As well I plan increasing the universal entrance on EI to be 360 hours. This will allow for those who are truly unemployed to actually get the money they deserve. I also hope to decrease student debt by lowering tuition fees at universities to their 1992 levels. I believe that this will allow for those students wishing to get an education in a field they truly love, to have the opportunity. I don't want those wishing to further their education to be in debt for years and years to come. Its necessary for my plan to decrease poverty to educate the civilians of Canada. As well I wish to decrease the amount of violence against women. Although its only a $70 million plan I hope for it to help those in need.In oder to help reduce the effects of climate change that we as Canadians have, I plan to put in a low income carbon tax refund. Also I plan to implement a $30 per ton carbon tax to help us eliminate our use of fossil fuels.To implement these plans I want to decrease the amount that we spend on the military. I want to decrease the amount spent to the pre-2001 levels. I don't feel it necessary to have a lot of money going into the military when we aren't in any major wars. By adding and decreasing the amounts spent on certain aspects of our country I was able to create a budget that has a deficit below $5 billion by 2014.
In my budget, I was able to keep deficit below $5 billion in 2014, as well as keep the unemployment rate below 6.5%. I added free childcare for everyone as well as reduced tuition levels for university students. I implemented a 30$/ton carbon tax as well as eliminated stock option deductions, which got rid of tax loopholes. I wasn't entirely sure about what to add in terms of taxes, but I eventually decided to just reinstate the 28% tax on oil & gas and financial industries, because it saved me a bit of money. One of my main goals was to keep unemployment rates down and I tried to do this by adding free healthcare for everyone. Maybe the reason some people can't work is because they don't have the proper medical care to enable them to do so? I also added free childcare, because that could be another reason peple may not be able to work. If you have to stay home with your kids all day because you can't afford childcare, then you will never be able to get a job. Hopefully adding both of these things help to reduce unemployment levels. The last thing I added on my budget, was an "ecoenergy" home efficiency program, because I think that the environment is an important issue that needs to be dealt with as well. http://www.policyalternatives.ca/MyBudgetSummary.htm?BudName=Ore'sBudget&Acomp=ECE|RevCarbTax|Pharma|Tuit|CCTB|RevStockOp|UR65|Def5&Items=FNWater|ECE|EcoEn|RevCarbTax|ComHlth|Pharma|Def911|Tuit|CCTB|GreenSkl|RevStockOp|RevOilGa
I will break down my budge into different sectors so we can analyze the pros of each funding choice. 1. I allowed $800Million / per year of funding for first nations schooling. I did so due to the long-term and short-term effects. The short-term effects indicate a decrease in unemployment levels as well as a slight increased deficit that would be eliminated in the long run. The reason this increased deficit would be decreased in the long run would be a result of the self-sustainability of future generations of aboriginal people within Canada, creating in a decreased welfare cost. 2. I created a $10 a day childcare plan that decreased unemployment levels quite significantly as well as supported the needs of a majority (3/4) of Canadian Citizens. 3. I allowed the ReBuild Canada program pledging $9,000Million per year to support “environmentally sustainable municipal infrastructure programs”. The reason I did so is that this program significantly decreases unemployment levels as well as creates a happy, sustainable future. 4. Another factor I implemented was a $30/ton Carbon Tax. Although this carbon tax slightly increases unemployment it was a HUGE effect on the deficit, nearly eliminating it. This carbon tax has the power to save Canada from large incurring deficits. 5. I also focused on the international aspect of military spending. I do not find it necessary for Canada to be one of the top 15 military spending nations. If we cut military spending as part of this deficit, we not longer have a deficit but are in a surplus. This surplus of funds can be used to support other projects that increase the quality of Canadian life. 6. Another policy I allowed was a 35% income tax rate on those making over $250,000 a year. Apparently, only 1% have incomes above this amount. This policy creates a surplus by 2014. At the end of the day, all Canadian families have affordable child care, unemployment is below 6.5%, we have focused upon dealing with climate change and a sustainable future, and there is no deficit by 2014. Of course it is easy for a kid to sit in his kitchen creating a budget that develops a ‘better’ Canada, but in reality each aspect I chose to focus upon, or ignore, has huge implication on our society that are deeply considered beforehand. If it was so easy it would be done. Understand all the effects of every policy is nearly impossible. If it was so easy all the conservatives would have to do is spend 5 minutes creating their own budget on this site. Who knows maybe it would be better than the current budget, but that is merely an assumption. A likely assumption, but still an assumption at that. Insuring that GDP remains consistent is a huge part of our society. GDP measures the growth or decrease in the foundation of our society; the economy. At the end of the day, not everyone will be happy. But figuring out how to balance these inequalities is our priority.