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(Courtesy News1130)

Finance minister Joe Oliver released the budget for the upcoming year. The document calls for a 1.4 billion dollar surplus for fiscal 2014-15, just enough to put the government in the black for the first time since it plunged into a record-sized deficit at the height of the recession.

The budget.touches on all four key elements from the Harper government’s messaging ahead of a planned fall election. And in his budget speech, Finance Minister Joe Oliver issues several dire warnings about what would happen to the government’s books _ and the economy _ if the opposition Liberals and New Democrats were in power.

It also introduces a number of measures aimed at stimulating growth in jobs and economic performance, including infrastructure spending and more money for skills training.

As promised, the government is adopting family-targeted tax cuts and other support measures it says will help families and communities prosper.

And there is money for the Canadian Armed Forces, the RCMP and Canada’s spy agencies to bolster activities to counter terrorism threats both at home and abroad.

Finance Minister Joe Oliver boasts in his first budget that the Conservative government paid down 37 billion dollars from the national debt before the recession hit in 2008.

What he doesn’t mention in his accompanying speech is how the debt ballooned since then.

The national debt in fiscal 2007-08 was pegged at 457.6 billion dollars. Oliver’s budget projects that it will reach 617 billion dollars in the current fiscal year.Still, he says, Canada’s total net government debt burden is lower than any other G7 country.

Finance Minister Joe Oliver says the federal government will see a surplus of about 1.4 billion dollars this fiscal year.

But it had to dip into its rainy-day fund, take cash out of the employment insurance program and sell off assets to get there. Randall Bartlett with TD Economics says if any one of those reserves hadn’t been available, the Conservatives would not have been able to achieve that goal _ mainly because it lost about six billion dollars in revenues as a result of drastically lower oil prices.

The government reduced its contingency reserve from three billion dollars _ where it has stood for years _ to just one billion dollars, leaving it with far less money to help deal with economic emergencies.

It also used a surplus that had accumulated in the E-I fund. And the sale earlier this month of the government’s remaining shares in General Motors also netted over two billion dollars that were applied to the bottom line.

Several initiatives included in the Harper government’s latest budget are aimed at seniors _ a demographic the Conservatives are counting on for support as a planned October election creeps closer.

The budget would see the minimum withdrawal amounts for registered retirement income funds, or RRIFs, reduced to allow seniors to invest their retirement savings for longer and delay paying tax on the money. There’s also a proposed new home accessibility tax credit to help seniors and people with disabilities with the cost of home renovations designed to make life simpler, and safer.

The 2015 federal budget includes money to pay for major new road, bridge and transit service projects.

Big city mayors and several provincial premiers have been pleading for financial support from Ottawa to pay for new infrastructure. But the money won’t kick for another two years.

The budget says the first 750 million dollars will be spread over two years, with a billion dollars spent annually after that.

There’s also another new initiative, the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program, which Oliver says will support the renovation, expansion and improvement of existing infrastructure across the country. However, no specific details have been made available.

The Harper government says it will beef up spending on the military _ an extra 11.8 billion dollars over 10 years, starting in fiscal 2017-18.

The new federal budget also confirms the government plans to spend 1.6 billion dollars to improve benefits for veterans.

And it’s already booked the spending in the fiscal year that ended on March 31st, so as not to count it against this year’s budget surplus.

The parliamentary budget office has already suggested the increase in military spending won’t be enough to maintain the Canadian Forces in its existing form. And Defence analyst Dave Perry predicts the government may have to cut the number of troops or curb its plans for buying equipment.

Nearly 300 million dollars is earmarked in the Harper government’s latest budget to help Canada’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies counter potential terrorist threats.

The money will be spread over five years and go to the RCMP and the country’s spy agencies. There’s also money to protect the government’s computer systems from cyberattacks.
And, in response to criticism that there is little oversight of intelligence agencies, the Security Intelligence Review Committee will get a one-time boost of 12.5 million dollars, and a further 2.5 million annually to bolster its review of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or C-SIS.

The federal budget contains several measures aimed at promoting business growth, and thereby creating jobs. The economic blueprint proposes making it faster for companies to write off the cost of buying new machinery.

Tax rates for small businesses will be lowered from the current 11 per cent to 9 per cent by 2019. The budget also contains new money for training and education programs aimed at filling in gaps in Canada’s labour market.

And there is money for research into everything from particle physics to forests.