2012 Federal Budget
Budget: Highlights of the 2012 federal budget
The budget will:
- Gradually raise the age of eligibility for Old Age Security from 65 to 67 beginning in 2023.
- Contain no new taxes or tax increases.
- Tell consumers to complain directly to food companies about product labelling.
- Eliminate the penny.
- Eliminate 19,200 government jobs over three years, including 600 senior executives and 7,200 through attrition.
- Reform regulation in the resource industry, including amending the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
- Allow Canadians to claim more goods duty-free at the border. The limit after 24 hours goes from $50 to $200.
- Cap EI premium rate increases to 5 cents a year until the fund is balanced again.
- Cut $2.1 billion from the Department of National Defence over the next three years.
- Cut funding to the CBC by 10 per cent over three years totaling $115 million.
- Cut funding to Elections Canada by $7.5 million a year starting in 2012-13.
- Give $5.2 billion over 11 years to the Canadian Coast Guard.
- Give $67 million to the National Research Council to refocus on "business-led, industry-relevant research."
- Streamline overall regulatory reviews of major economic projects.
- Provide $275 million to build and renovate schools on reserves.
- Pass legislation to create standards for First Nations education.
- Refund $130 million in application and processing fees to skilled foreign workers stuck in immigration limbo.
- Raise the retirement age of public servants from 60 to 65, for new employees beginning in 2013.
- Increase employee-contribution levels to pension plans for those working in Canadian Forces, RCMP, Public Service Commission and parliamentarians.
- Make the Governor General pay income tax beginning in 2013.
- Shut down the Public Appointments Commission, Assisted Human Reproduction Canada, and the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.
- Sell official residences abroad, generating $80 million in revenue.
- Standardize all government emails to one system.
- $205 million over one year for Hiring Credit for Small Business.
- Give $50 million over two years to Youth Employment Strategy.
- Give $150 million over two years on Community Infrastructure Improvement fund
- Give $105 million next year to Via Rail for operational and capital projects.
- Give $101 million over next five years for Esquimalt Graving Dock.
- Give $50 million over two years to protect wildlife at risk.
- Provide $450 million for sports facilities in the Greater Toronto Area for the 2015 Pan American and Parapan American Games.
- Give $8 million to clean up low-level radioactive waste in Port Hope and Clarington, Ont.
- Provide $44 million over two years to the Canadian Grain Commission to reform their funding model.
- Provide $13.5 million over two years to improve pipeline safety.
- Give $35.7 million over two years to improve tanker safety and inspections, emergency preparedness related to oil spills and updated charts for shipping routes.
- Announce a new global commerce strategy in 2013 that sets trade priorities.
- Provide $9.6 million over three years to the RCMP to fight counterfeiting.
- Give $ 99.2 million over three years to help the provinces create permanent flood mitigation measures.
- The Government has found $5.2 billion in ongoing savings from departmental spending or less than two per cent of federal program spending.
Some great article links:
Infographic-your 2012 Federal budget explained
How the Provinces are reacting to the budget
