Ottawa promises balanced budgets, funds for cities
Date: 04-Feb-04
Country: CANADA
Author: David Ljunggren
It also vowed fundamental reforms of the creaking public health-care system and said Canada would respect its commitments under the Kyoto climate-change accord.
Ottawa made the promises in a policy statement delivered to the first session of Parliament to be held since new Prime Minister Paul Martin was sworn in last December.
Although the Liberals are almost 30 points ahead of the opposition Conservatives in recent polls, many of their legislators come from cities, which are unhappy over what they see as Ottawa's rejection of their pleas for more money.
"Large and small, rural and urban, Canada's communities are facing new challenges, often without sufficient resources or the tools they need," said the policy statement.
The document - read to Parliament by Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson, the representative of head of state, Queen Elizabeth - said Ottawa was "committed to a new deal" for municipalities.
The government said it would give municipalities an extra C$7 billion ($5.2 billion) over the next 10 years by giving them a rebate of the federal goods and services tax they pay.
Ottawa also promised to give the cities more cash by sharing revenues from gasoline tax revenues or by finding "other fiscal mechanisms" to hand over the money.
The opposition Conservatives dismissed the announcements as bribes to the electorate.
"It is the start of the election campaign, that's what this document really is," the party's Grant Hill told reporters. A poll by Leger Marketing, released this week, showed the Liberals with 49 percent of public support and the Conservatives in second at 21 percent.
Martin also announced Ottawa would develop Canada's first national security policy "to address new threats such as non-state terrorism, but gave few details.
The Liberals have been in power since 1993, when they inherited a C$42 billion budget deficit from the former Conservative government.
Martin, who as finance minister for nine years played a large role in balancing the books, made it clear the government "will not spend itself into deficit" and was committed to balanced budgets and further cuts in the debt-to-GDP ratio.
Ottawa has brought in six consecutive budget surpluses and is on course to post a narrow surplus this year, despite its decision last week to give the 10 provinces an extra C$2 billion in one-off health-care funding.
Polls show the health-care system is a major priority for Canadians, with many worried by long lines for treatment despite the C$85 billion that Ottawa and the provinces invest in health each year.
"These waiting times must be reduced. This will require fundamental reform," the statement said.
Ottawa also committed to spend C$3.5 billion for environmental cleanups at contaminated government sites over the next 10 years and another C$500 million over the same time to clean other polluted locations.
(Additional reporting by Gilbert Le Gras and Randall Palmer)