(Vancouver) A new study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives shows that BC’s income tax cuts concentrated dollars in Greater Vancouver, already the wealthiest part of the province, while smaller communities are being hit hardest by the spending cuts.
Government finance
(Vancouver) The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says the provincial government could spare British Columbians the pain of spending cuts, while still meeting the government’s three-year timetable for balancing the budget. In its 2003BC Solutions Budget, the CCPA shows what would have happened to provincial finances had there been no tax cuts and no spending cuts.
Inside this issue:
Who's Cutting Classes: Untangling the Spin about K-12 Education in BC
Are Welfare Time Limits Constitutional?
BC's Incredible Shrinking Environment Minister
BC's Budget: Balanced Fiscally not Socially
OTTAWA: The Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) project, coordinated by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, released its Economic and Fiscal Update today. The report, contrary to Minister Manley's warnings of a shrinking surplus, forecasts a combined surplus of $27.9 billion this year and next. It also notes the AFB's remarkably accurate record of forecasting federal surpluses over the last three years--$40 billion, compared with the actual cumulative surplus of $39.7 billion.
OTTAWA--Prime Minister Jean Chretien, during both the 1997 and 2000 federal election campaigns, promised that future "fiscal dividends" (the underlying budget surpluses resulting from economic growth and a shrinking debt burden) would be spent in a balanced "50:50" manner. Half would be re-invested in social priorities such as more funding for health care, education, and poverty reduction, and the other half would go jointly to tax cuts and debt reduction.
Ottawa--Despite John Manley and Paul Martin's repeated warnings of a dismal fiscal outlook, the Alternative Federal Budget's calculations show Canadians can expect an underlying federal surplus of $6.6 billion in fiscal year 2003-04.
The AFB's Economic and Fiscal Update, released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, predicts that this year's surplus of $6.6 billion will rise to a surplus of $20.4 in fiscal year 2006-07, constituting a cumulative surplus of $55.9 billion over the next four years.