Rafferty says nothing in budget for NWO

News Release
John Rafferty MP

OTTAWA – Member of Parliament John Rafferty (Thunder Bay – Rainy River) delivered a stinging speech in opposition to the 2009-2010 federal budget presented to the House of Commons this week. Rafferty blasted the Conservative – Liberal budget for failing to address the forestry crisis, not reforming Employment Insurance, and for failing to invest in local initiatives.
On the forestry crisis Rafferty said, “This government has the nerve; the arrogance, to table a budget that contains $60 billion for corporate tax cuts, and just $170 million for the struggling forestry sector that provides employment to nearly one million Canadians, and which has been in its own recession for five years.” Rafferty and other New Democrats had called on the Conservative government to invest billions in the forestry sector to help families and communities affected by the crisis.
Rafferty also slammed the Conservative sponsored and Liberal supported budget for failing reform the Employment Insurance program. “This government continues to sit and collect interest on the $54 billion surplus in the Employment Insurance fund, and offers no help to the 73 percent of workers who pay into this fund but are unable to draw from it once they lose their job,” Rafferty said. “Even more appalling, Mr. Speaker is that making Employment Insurance more accessible... would not have added even a single dollar to the massive deficit in this budget – it would have come from the standalone fund that has a $54 billion surplus and that sits untouched.”
Rafferty also listed a long list of local priorities and initiatives that were left out of the budget despite similar projects receiving money in other parts of the country. “There is no extension of VIA Rail service to Thunder Bay and rural communities, just more trains between Canada’s two largest urban municipalities (Montreal and Toronto),” Rafferty noted. He added, “There is a significant amount of money allotted for the upgrading of border facilities in British Columbia, Southern and Eastern Ontario, but apparently no money for upgrading the Rainy River, Fort Frances, and Pigeon River crossings... Mr. Speaker, because these and other local concerns are not adequately addressed in this budget – I will vote against its passage.”