Member of Parliament Cheryl Gallant is welcoming the federal budget, Economic Action Plan 2014, and its focus on job creation, economic growth, and keeping taxes low – along with its plan to get back to balance by 2015 – as a positive for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke.
“While Canada has the strongest job creation record among all G-7 countries, with more than 1 million net new jobs created since the depth of the global recession, too many Canadians are still looking for work,” said MP Cheryl Gallant “That’s why Economic Action Plan 2014 will continue our Conservative Government’s focus on creating more jobs and growing the economy in Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke and across the country.”
While the Opposition had been publicly calling for the federal budget to include new tax hikes on Canadians and more deficit spending, our Conservative Government rejected both demands. Economic Action Plan 2014 contained no new taxes on families and businesses, while also continuing to ensure government spending was efficient and effective as possible. “As we have seen in Queen’s Park, not having one’s fiscal house in order can lead to industry leaving the province, economic instability caused by rising electricity prices, with cuts to government programs and higher taxes,” said MP Gallant
Economic Action Plan 2014 includes key measures to support Ontario families and strengthen our economy, while keeping taxes low and returning to balanced budgets in 2015, including:
- Launching the Canada Job Grant: so that Canadians can get the skills training they need to get in-demand jobs.
- Supporting Atomic Energy of Canada Limited: Investing $117 million in AECL to maintain safe and reliable operations at the Chalk River Laboratories, ensuring a secure supply of medical isotopes.
- Creating the Canada Apprentice Loan: which will provide apprentices in Red Seal trades access to over $100 million in interest-free loans each year.
- Launching a Job Matching Service: this new service will automatically match Canadians looking for work with employers looking to hire them.
- Supporting Farmers: Expanding the tax deferral for livestock to include bees and all horses over 12 months that are kept for breeding when sold due to drought or excess moisture.
- Removing Red Tape for the Beer Industry: Modernizing the compositional standards for beer under the Food and Drug Regulations to reflect innovation in the industry.
- Increasing Paid Internships for Young Canadians: investing $55 million to create paid internships for recent graduates in small and medium-sized businesses and in high-demand fields.
- Supporting Canada’s Forestry Sector: Investing over $90 million to advance cutting edge technologies to enhance the competitiveness of Canada’s forestry companies through the Investments in Forest Industry Transformation program.
- Helping Older Workers Get Back to Work: investing $75 million in the Targeted Initiative for Older Workers to support older workers who want to participate in the job market.
- Cutting Red Tape for Small Business: cutting 800,000 payroll remittances for 50,000 small businesses.
- Making Landmark Investments in Research & Innovation: $1.5 billion over the next decade for research at universities through the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.
- Conserving Canada’s Natural Heritage: investing in Canada’s national parks and historic canals, conserving recreational fisheries, expanding tax relief for the environmental conservation of lands, encouraging clean energy generation with tax relief to new green technologies, and more.
- Supporting Families: enhancing tax relief for families adopting a child, expanding tax relief for health-related services, capping wholesale wireless rates to make service more affordable, cracking down on cross-border price discrimination, and more.
- Strengthening Communities: improving broadband in rural and remote communities, establishing a $200 million National Disaster Mitigation Program to help communities prepare for natural disasters, introducing a Search and Rescue Volunteers Tax Credit, and more.
- Standing Up for Victims of Crime: implementing the Victim’s Bill of Rights and proving funding for a DNA-based Missing Persons Index.
- And much more.
“When it comes to health care, education and other important social services that families rely on, under our Conservative Government federal support has grown to historic levels, and will continue to grow into the future,” concluded Cheryl Gallant MP.