Flaherty to table new budget

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will table Canada’s budget to the House of Commons Monday afternoon. It will be an almost identical budget to the one tabled on March 22. The Conservatives hold a majority of the seats in Parliament and the budget is likely to pass without any trouble.

Flaherty said a few tweaks have been made to March’s budget. Political parties’ direct public subsidies will be phased out over a three-year period. Parties in the past would get two dollars annually for every vote they received in the previous general election. This cost the federal treasury $27 million every year.

Quebec might also be looking at a payday if an agreement can be reached with the federal government by Sept. 15. Flaherty has set aside $2.2 billion for Quebec for harmonizing its provincial and federal sales taxes.

In March, Flaherty called the budget a “low tax plan for jobs and growth”. The Conservatives have promised to eliminate Canada’s deficit by 2015-2016. They even said they would be able to do it by 2014-2015 during the last election campaign.