TheConservative government has unveiled initiatives in its speech from the throne last week and has then revealed its budget. Since then the opposition has charged the government for not doing enough on job creation, on climate change and overdoing corporate tax cuts for big oil companies and changing lyrics of the Canadian national anthem. The opposition also accuses the Conservatives of damaging the Canadian democracy by proroguing the Parliament twice in a two-year time period.
“Opposition says what it says,” says Mr. Paul Calandra, the Member of Parliament from Oak-Ridge-Markham. “We have been consulting our constituents and Canadians about what they want in a budget. We were trying to charter the course to bring the budget back into the balance. We wanted to do so while working with our provincial and municipal partners..to make Canada a superior destination for foreign investment,” the rookie MP fires back.
Eventually the government wants to balance a $56 billion budget by cutting back on its own finances: freezing the salaries of the Prime Minister, the Cabinet Ministers, the members of Parliament and the money given to the cabinet offices. “We want to bring down expenses; we don’t wanna do what we did in the past. When the Liberal government wanted to reduce the budget in 1990s, they cut the money from education and health…we won’t do it that way. We looked at all the avenues of red tape to cut the budget from excess government,” says Mr. Calandra who has also has served as Chief of Staff to MPP Steve Gilchrist, former Minister of Municipal Affairs & Housing, Chair of the Red Tape Commission and first Commissioner of Alternative Energy. He agreed though that “ the governments are huge enterprises and there are going to be areas where the money is not spent wisely. We’re looking into the areas where the money can be spent more wisely..because public wants us to balance the budget.” He applauded Finance Minister Flaherty on being the best Finance Minister in international community, expressing full confidence in his ability to balance $56 billion budget over the next few years.
The 39-year old MP believes that the government has invested billions of dollars in post secondary and apprenticeship programs for youth. He noted the millions of dollars have been invested in University of Toronto and colleges for Canadian youth to be able to compete internationally and for others to look into second careers if they need to change careers. “We have asked the institutions to tell us what do they need to be the best in the world, to identify the areas where they need funding, and we have given tools to our youth to be the best educated people in the world. These investments are making Canada the most competitive jurisdiction of the world,” Mr. Calandra says.
In a 451-page budget, opposition says there are no new dollars for overseas visa offices to expedite immigration of parents and spouses from overseas. The government recognizes that Canada seeks qualified people from all over the world, but does not recognize their credentials when they come here. MP Calandra notes that the federal government has been working with its provincial partners to recognize foreign credentials. MP Calandra, who sits on Standing Committee to Citizenship and Immigration, says that the government has made drastic changes to make immigration to Canada “faster and more responsive to what Canada needs.”
“We have given parents’ the choice to choose when it comes to early child care,” Mr. Calandra says. Liberals have been promising change in child care for years without doing anything about it. They have never come up with a plan that suggests where the dollars for child care would come from. He says the federal government continues to work with provincial governments to give more options to families. He points out that the federal government has given tax cuts to working families and has reduced GST. Nonetheless, the opposition is firm in saying that the Conservative government has done next to nothing for working families and everything for big oil companies who do not need government’s support as much as the working families do.
When it comes to climate change, he says that Canada is working with the US and its international partners to develop green technology, to invest in chemical energy to provide funding for the improvement of the Great Lakes and to work on targets that can be fulfilled.
Many newspaper articles have been written on how the Conservative government’s two attempts to thwart the Parliament can hurt the Canadian democracy that we so much believe in. MP Calandra says “the first prorogation was the direct response to the opposition parties’” to throw the government. And so the Prime Minister has to do it. “It’s part of our constitution and every government has used and every government will continue to use it,” he says. Mr. Calandra notes that the government wanted the MPs to work in December, however the opposition members of Parliament unanimously voted against it. Back in June, the government wanted to extend the days of the Parliament, however the opposition members of Parliament refused at that time also. And the Conservative government is working aggressively to bring about democratic reform in the Senate, he says.
Author: Asma Amanat
