February 25, 2008

The Alternative Federal Budget: making choices to defend quality public services

On February 26 the Harper government will present its 2008 federal budget, making choices that directly affect the quality of our lives.

Up to now, this government's budget choices have been very bad for many Canadians. Their tax cuts and overly aggressive debt repayment have reduced the level of public services that Canadians need and expect. Adequate responses to climate change, affordable housing, child-care, post secondary education, accessible health care, equality for women, minorities and aboriginal Canadians cannot be financed by their tax cuts and near-obsession with debt repayment.

Canadian families are working 200 more hours a year on average than only 10 years ago. Eighty percent (80%) of Canadian families are taking home a smaller share of the economic pie than families did a generation ago. Corporate profit is at a 40-year high, but that wealth is not being shared.

For these reasons and many more Canadians need to seriously reflect on the choices that the Harper government will make in the latest federal budget.

There is an alternative: A budget you can count on

Each year the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives consults with a wide range of community groups, unions and others to create an Alternative Federal Budget.
Its recommendations are analyzed and costed by economists who are as equally well respected as those the government depends on. They simply have different views about how the economy can help Canadians and how different choices are possible and preferable.

When the latest federal budget is released on February 26, you decide whether the choices the Harper government has made will really benefit Canadians.