The 2004 Federal Budget: A Prudent Fiscal Plan highlights Finance Minister Ralph Goodale’s prudent fiscal plan in his first federal budget. Other than the elimination of GST payments by municipalities, the budget delivers few major new initiatives. However, it does contain a number of relatively small new spending programs in established priority areas.
Document Highlight
The 2004 Federal Budget: A Prudent Fiscal Plan concludes that Finance Minister Ralph Goodale tabled a prudent fiscal plan in his first national budget, given his lack of room to introduce new ongoing spending programs or significant tax cuts. This prudence is welcome economic management, due to uncertainty over the sustainability of the U.S. recovery and the continued strength of the Canadian dollar.
The budget confirmed the commitment of $2 billion to the provinces for increased health-care funding announced one year ago, and announced new one-time spending of $1 billion to livestock producers suffering from the impact of BSE and $500 million to be set aside in a third-party trust to pay for a public health surveillance system..
New ongoing spending includes:
- full rebates for GST and the federal portion of HST payments for municipalities
- enhancements to the Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) and the Canada Education Savings Grant
- $300 million for Canada’s continued involvement in peacekeeping in Afghanistan and Haiti
- an extra $250 million in international assistance in fiscal year 2005–2006
- increases in the capital cost allowance for information and communications technology
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