Battlefords-Lloydminster MP Rosemarie Falk says key areas were overlooked in Liberal’s 2018 Budget.
The Federal Government announced the budget this week, which will make spending increases to promote balancing the gender-pay gap, five weeks of parental leave for men and same-sex couples, infrastructure, child welfare, health care and employment training in Indigenous communities, as well as focusing on curbing the opioid crisis and environmental science.
The budget also expects to run a 18.1 billion dollar deficit, which some MPs including Falk criticized as massive overspending, which will result in new taxes.
“I think the spending is out of control. I wish I could run my household budget like this, and just spend and spend and spend and have other people pay for it. I think we need to look and see where the money’s going. They send all this money out but we’re not seeing anything change, we’re not seeing anyone’s lives here at home impacted in a positive way.”
On the notion of the money’s direction, Falk says that two major areas for Battlefords-Lloydminster were not covered.
“There’s nothing about pipelines, there’s nothing about agriculture. I think AG was mentioned three times. We have a crisis right now on our rail lines, we have a backlog of grain. The energy sector and the agriculture sector are two big sectors that in Battlefords-Lloydminster, and a lot of the residents of Battlefords-Lloydminster rely on those to help them.”
The budget document does also mention the uncertainty surrounding NAFTA, but Falk says more should be put into contingency plans if negotiations fall through.
“There’s nothing for NAFTA in the budget right now either. We don’t have a crisis right now, but what happens if we do have a crisis all of the sudden? I’m very disappointed in this Liberal Government, and their failure for hardworking Canadians.”
In the meantime, Falk says “time will tell” on the full impact of the 2018 Federal Budget.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau announcing the 2018 federal budget.Â