WAI Young, MP for Vancouver South, is welcoming the federal budget, Economic Action Plan 2014 and its focus on job creation, economic growth, and keeping taxes low – along with the Conservative Government’s plan to get back to balanced budgets by 2015.

“While Canada is standing tall with the strongest job creation in the G-7, and with over 1 million net new jobs created since the depth of the global recession, too many Canadians are still out of work,” said Young. “Economic Action Plan 2014 continues our Government’s focus on creating more jobs and growing the economy in British Columbia and across Canada.”

She said that while the NDP and Liberals had been publicly calling for new tax hikes on Canadians and more deficit spending, the Conservative Government rejected both demands. Economic Action Plan 2014 contains no new taxes on families and businesses, while also continuing to ensure government spending is as efficient and effective as possible.

“As we’ve seen in too many places around the world, not having one’s fiscal house in order can lead to economic instability, dramatic cuts to government programs, and higher taxes which hurt families, businesses, and communities,” said Young. Economic Action Plan 2014 will keep Canada on a steady and stable path towards jobs and economic growth.

Economic Action Plan 2014 includes key measures to support BC and strengthen our economy, while keeping taxes low and returning to balanced budgets in 2015, including:

* Launching the Canada Job Grant: so that Canadians can get the skills training they need to get in-demand jobs.
* Creating the Canada Apprentice Loan: which will provide apprentices in Red Seal trades access to over $100 million in interest-free loans each year.
* Launching a Job Matching Service: this new service will automatically match Canadians looking for work with employers looking to hire them.
* Increasing Paid Internships for Young Canadians: investing $55 million to create paid internships for recent graduates in small and medium-sized businesses and in high-demand fields.
* Helping Older Workers Get Back to Work: investing $75 million in the Targeted Initiative for Older Workers to support older workers who want to participate in the job market.
* Supporting Canadians with Disabilities: investing in the Ready, Willing & Able initiative to help Canadians with disabilities participate in the workforce.
* Cutting Red Tape for Small Business: cutting 800,000 payroll remittances for 50,000 small businesses.
* Making Landmark Investments in Research & Innovation: $1.5 billion over the next decade for research at universities through the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.
* Conserving Canada’s Natural Heritage: investing in Canada’s national parks and historic canals, conserving recreational fisheries, expanding tax relief for the environmental conservation of lands, encouraging clean energy generation with tax relief to new green technologies, and more.
* Supporting Families: enhancing tax relief for families adopting a child, expanding tax relief for health-related services (including acupuncture and naturopathic services), capping wholesale wireless rates to make service more affordable, cracking down on cross-border price discrimination, and more.
* Strengthening Communities: improving broadband in rural and remote communities, establishing a $200 million National Disaster Mitigation Program to help communities prepare for natural disasters, introducing a Search and Rescue Volunteers Tax Credit, and more.
* Standing Up for Victims of Crime: implementing the Victim’s Bill of Rights and providing funding for a DNA-based Missing Persons Index.

Young said that unlike the previous Liberal government which balanced their budget by cutting transfer support to provinces, the Conservative Government is growing provincial transfers to record levels. For BC, the federal budget confirmed that transfers will total $5.8 billion in 2014-15 – a significant 27% increase from under the previous Liberal government.

“While the Liberals radically slashed transfers to British Columbia, our Conservative Government’s federal support for health care, education, and social services have grown to historic levels, and will continue to grow into the future,” said Young.