|
|
INDEPTH: FEDERAL BUDGET 2006
Provinces and Cities
CBC News Online | May 2, 2006
Help for provinces and cities
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's first budget boasts that it will "help make our communities better places to live."
Some measures aimed at accomplishing that goal will go to individuals, to subsidize monthly transit passes, for example, and some will go to community groups, to help fight gang activity and crime among young people. Other amounts will be channelled through different levels of government, however.
Provinces and territories
The big promise Prime Minister Stephen Harper made to provincial and territorial governments leading up to the election was a pledge to address what's called the fiscal imbalance. That's the difference between the amount of revenue a province's citizens send to Ottawa in the form of taxes and fees, and the amount that province receives back in the form of federal transfer payments and other spending.
Intense negotiations will be required to set out a formula for calculating the fiscal imbalance, so no exact numbers are contained in the 2006 budget.
Nor is a dollar amount attached to what will be another expensive promise to keep -- a vow to bring in a "patient wait times guarantee" for medical services, so that Canadians with health problems don't spend too much time waiting for surgery or diagnostic services.
The budget documents do promise that the Conservatives will follow through on funding for that 10-year health funding plan, though.
Here's what the budget does spell out:
- Up to $3.3 billion for projects that address urgent needs in post-secondary education, affordable housing and public transit, "contingent on sufficient funds being available from the 2005-06 surplus."
- Infrastructure funding of $5.5 billion over four years for a variety of federal programs. They include the Highways and Border Infrastructure Fund, the pre-existing Canada's Pacific Gateway Initiative, the Canada Strategic Infrastructure Fund, the Municipal Rural Infrastrucutre Fund and a Public Transit Capital Trust.
- Up to $800 million will be available to provincial governments to spend on projects that offer affordable housing to low-income Canadians. The projects do not have to be cost-shared to receive federal funds.
- A guarantee that 2006-07 equalization payments will not be lower than expected.
Cities
Municipal governments will be able to take advantage of the infrastructure funding described above.
Of specific interest to larger cities will be the crime-fighting measures outlined in the budget's security section.
In addition, the Conservatives are promising up to $1.3 billion in support of public transit infrastructure. They also say they will boost public transit use by offering passengers a tax credit amounting to 15.5 per cent of the cost of monthly or annual passes.
^TOP
|
|
 |
 MENU |
|
|
| MORE: |
|
|
|
|
