Canada on track for another surplus
by investor on 20/10/08 at 12:58 pm
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says Canada is on track “for a modest fiscal surplus this year,” but would not say whether the country is immune from future deficits as the global credit crisis continues.
Speaking on CTV’s Question Period, Flaherty said the Canadian economy is not immune to the turmoil in international markets.
“We’re not an island and we get buffeted by what’s going on in other places and we’re in the midst of this now,” he said.
NDP finance critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis accused the Stephen Harper government of focusing on corporate tax breaks when tax revenue could be put toward investing in infrastructure and job creation, saying that would revive the economy.
“We’ve always said, and in fact the NDP offered the only real alternative in this past election to this deepening economic recession, which is, for now, hold the line on corporate tax breaks and instead invest that money in the very areas that will protect people during times of economic recession,” Wasylycia-Leis said.
Liberal critic John McCallum, who is expected to take control of the Liberal party from Stephane Dion this week, said the party would work with the Harper government to find solutions to the financial crisis.
However, he accused Harper of withholding economic outlook numbers from his own finance department during the election campaign, when he claimed that Canada would not slide into a deficit.
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