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Motz, Chamber of Commerce, respond to federal budget

Feb 27, 2018 | 4:25 PM

 

OTTAWA, AB — Glen Motz says he is “disappointed” with the budget tabled by the Liberal government for 2018.

Speaking over the phone from Ottawa Tuesday afternoon, The Member of Parliament for Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner said the budget tabled by the government failed to address the issues he has heard in the riding, including taxes on small businesses and ranchers.

He was also not happy with the $18.1 billion deficit for 2018, and the lack of path towards a balanced budget.

“I guess it’s one of those things where the Trudeau Government did whatever they thought they needed to say in 2015 to get elected, but now they can’t follow through,” he said. “They want to spend their way into prosperity, and they want to spend their way into power again in 2019.

“There’s nothing in this budget to help the largest employers in Alberta, and certainly in our riding, and that’s energy and farming. I’m disappointed”

Motz, who is also Deputy Shadow Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, was not happy with how illegal border crossing was addressed. The government is spending $173.2 million over the next year to support claim processing and to improve border security to better manage the increased number of people seeking asylum in Canada.

“Rather than addressing the issue of closing the loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement, they’re putting $170 million toward really perpetuating the problem,” he said.

Motz says the budget was a chance for the federal government to create a strong economic environment to compete with other countries, but he says it didn’t happen.

“It was an opportunity for the Trudeau Liberals to turn the economic opportunity that exists elsewhere in the world – their economies are roaring – but Trudeau is failing to turn the opportunity we could have in this country into results for Canadians,” he said.

The Medicine Hat and District Chamber of Commerce echoed many of Motz’s comments, saying that not enough is being done to benefit the business community.

Treasurer Brett Pudwell said there hasn’t been enough movement on the topic of policy to help businesses in southern Alberta.

“The U.S. has made very clear steps in reducing their tax rate,” said Pudwell. “So, that makes it harder to remain competitive up in Canada. So, we were really hoping to see more on the tax reform or at least taking a look at what we can do to stay competitive, and that wasn’t addressed at all.”

One highlight for the local business community was a push towards gender pay equality, with Pudwell saying it’s a wait and see process now.

“Definitely in business that’s a good thing going forward,” he said. “As far as exact specifics, they’re kind of spending a lot of money, there’s programs set up. Whether or not these get accessed and utilized properly is yet to be seen.”

The government also announced its creating a national advisory council to come up with options for a national pharmacare program to cover the cost of prescription drugs. Motz, who said exploring a pharamcare program for vulnerable Canadians is “wise,” believes the program is going to become an issue in the 2019 election.

“To me, this is a Liberal election ploy to not deal with something right away and rather get a commission or a consultation process going, where we’re going to look at pharmacare, we’re going to see what it’s going to do, and put something out for the 2019 election,” he said.

“Having said that, there are many in our country that could benefit from prescription medication to help whatever their health needs are, and they either can’t afford it or its not available for them. Is there something better we can do? Sure there is, in a fiscally responsible manner, we can always be better and look at things differently.”

The budget earmarked a total of $231.4 million over five years to combat the opioid crisis, with $150 million as a one-time emergency investment to improve access to treatment programs across the country. Motz says there needs to be more specific details on what the funding will be used for.