|
October 5, 2000
Growing surplus means government can set new priorities for next budget
Ottawa - The Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD) is calling on the federal government to help Canadians grow closer together - not further apart - when designing its next budget. In its 20-page brief to the Standing Committee on Finance, the CCSD lists a series of recommendations that would focus on new social investment, balanced with debt reduction, and tax relief.
"With ballooning surpluses, it is the time to use investments in areas such as child care, housing and job training to reverse some of the more dismal trends that have occurred in recent years. These include falling real incomes for the majority of households, and increased costs to families for essential services such as education, health, housing and child care," says Marcel Lauzière, CCSD Executive Director.
"The size of the federal surplus and the healthy prospects for continued growth and job creation provide Canada with a major opportunity to reduce the risk of social exclusion for people left behind in the new economy. There is ample opportunity now to finance social investment and target tax relief to low to middle-income earners, without compromising the continued decline of federal debt as a share of GDP, or inhibiting growth and job creation," adds Andrew Jackson, CCSD Research Director.
If such steps are not taken, the CCSD warns that Canada risks creating a large underclass of poor citizens composed mainly of single-parent and young two-parent families, persons with disabilities and recent immigrants.
To improve Canada's social infrastructure, the CCSD recommends:
Increased federal funds for the National Children's Agenda to boost child and youth development opportunities Advancing the timetable for increasing the Canada Child Tax Benefit and phasing out benefits more slowly as family income rises A national disability agenda that would enable provinces to create better supports and services for persons with disabilities, and improve tax credits for persons with disabilities Tax reform to remove more poor households from the income tax rolls and provide more tax relief to all families with children A leadership role at the federal level in developing a new affordable housing strategy Establishing a $50 million research fund for the development of social progress indicators
The CCSD estimates that its tax recommendations would cost approximately $2.6 billion, a modest share of the anticipated federal surplus of at least $20 billion. It recommends that the remaining surplus, minus the amounts set aside for the contingency reserve and for conservative economic assumptions, be allocated to social investments.
- 30 -
Highlights and the full brief, "Growing Together: Priorities for the 2001 Federal Budget" can be found in Policy Statements.
Canadian Council on Social Development,
190 O'Connor Street, Suite 100,
Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 2R3
Tel: (613) 236-8977, Fax: (613) 236-2750, Web: www.ccsd.ca, Email: council@ccsd.ca
|
