For Immediate Release May 2, 2006

“Delivering on Election Promises and More.
First Conservative Budget indicative of
Prime Minister’s style”, says Komarnicki

Ottawa (May 2, 2006) -- Ed Komarnicki, MP, (Souris-Moose Mountain).

“Prime Minister Stephen Harper made his election platform promises in a straightforward and easy to understand fashion. He said what he would do and now he is delivering by implementing these promises in a straightforward manner” said Komarnicki. “In addition to fulfilling campaign promises, it is encouraging to see this Government taking a number of new initiatives” said Komarnicki.

“Canadians pay too much in taxes and families receive too little from Ottawa. The 2006 Conservative Budget offers more tax relief to Canadians than the last four Liberal budgets combined” said Komarnicki. For every $1 in new spending, the government is delivering $2 in tax relief. To that end, we see 29 separate tax deductions including the following:

- a reduction in the GST by 1% and a permanent reduction in the lowest tax rate to 15.5%. These two items amount to a tax reduction for all Canadians in the total amount of 20 billion over the next two years;

- an annual payment to families of $1,200.00 per child under the age of 6, effective July 1, 2006;

- a brand new Canadian employment credit of $500.00, commencing July 1, 2006 and increasing to $1,000.00 on January 1, 2007, to give Canadians a break on what it costs to work by recognizing expenses for things such as home computers, uniforms and supplies;

- an increase in the basic personal deduction, where 665,000 Canadians will not have to pay any income tax at all;

- an increase to $2,000 in the amount of eligible pension income that can be claimed by seniors;

- a $500 Children’s Fitness Tax Credit for parents of children under the age of 16 who pay for registration fees and memberships in their children’s sports programs and athletic activities;

- a tax deduction of up to $500.00 for trades people for the cost of tools that they must acquire as a condition of their employment;

- a lowering of the tax rate for small business to 11.5% in 2008 and to 11% in 2009, coupled with an increase in the threshold amount that small businesses may earn and still be taxed at the lowest rate;

“Many of these were promised to Canadians during the election campaign and Canadians have received what was promised and more”, said Komarnicki. “It is hard to be critical of a budget that strives to put more money in the hands of honest, hard-working and over-taxed Canadians. This is indeed broad based tax relief” said Komarnicki, “as it covers consumption tax, income tax, corporate tax and excise tax.”

In addition to the many tax cuts, the Government acted on many areas that matter to Canadians. Some of the areas where new initiatives were taken include:

- providing $161 Million for 1,000 more RCMP officers and federal prosecutors;

- the allocation of $101 Million to begin arming border officials and eliminating ‘work alone’ posts;

- providing $303 Million to implement a border strategy to promote the movement of low-risk trade and travelers within North America while protecting Canada from security threats;

- an additional $2.2 Billion over five years to the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund;

- the maintenance of the gas tax funding commitment under the New Deal for Cities and Communities. This includes the increase to 100% of the rebate on the GST and the federal portion of the HST that municipalities pay that will see the federal government delivering $7.1 Billion over the next four years.

- the investment of more than $500 Million to be applied to the new Apprenticeship Job Creation Tax Credit of up to $2,000.00 per apprentice and the new Apprenticeship Incentive Grant of $1,000.00 per year for the first two years of a Red Seal apprenticeship and other economically strategic apprenticeship programs. This is estimated to benefit 100,000 apprentices over a two year period;

- the elimination of federal income tax on all income from scholarships, bursaries and fellowships;

- the creation of a new Textbook Tax Credit, which will benefit approximately 1.9 million Canadian Students;
- the expansion of the eligibility for the Canada Student Loans Program by reducing the parental contribution requirements; and

- an additional $100 Million of investment in Research and Development.

Finally, with respect to farming and the agricultural community, which is of the utmost importance to rural Saskatchewan and my constituency in particular, the 2006 Budget recognizes the crisis facing farmers and producers. The commitment of an additional $1 Billion dollars to the $500 Million already promised to farmers during the election campaign sends the right message, “we care about farmers”.

The Government has also committed to replace CAIS with more effective programming for separate farm income stabilization and disaster relief. The Government will provide one-time funding to shift the inventory valuation method under CAIS to make the program more responsive and to put in place deeper loss coverage for farmers.

In support of improved disaster coverage, the Government will also implement a Cover Crop Protection Program to help farmers deal with the damage caused by flooding of fields. To ensure the future competitiveness and prosperity of the agriculture industry, the Government will invest in ongoing measures, including the enhancement of cash advance programming, new investments in biomass science and funding in support of a biofuels strategy (ethanol & biodiesel), and new programming to support the agri-food industry in developing new market opportunities. In recognition of their unique challenge, the Government will also put in place measures to help low-income farm families.

John Williamson who is the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, when commenting on the budgetary process and the behaviour we could expect from the Liberal and NDP parties once the budget was introduced in the House stated, “Attacks from the Liberals and the NDP should be treated with a large dose of skepticism. Those objections have more to do with partisan politics than with reality.” “There is little doubt, said Komarnicki, “that the taxpayers of Canada indeed are ahead with this budget. No taxpayer has been left behind.”