Pre-budget consultations started early this year. The Standing Committee on Finance is inviting Canadians to participate in its annual pre-budget consultation process. The 2010 consultations will result in a report to be tabled in the House of Commons in late fall 2010, and the suggestions by Canadians as well as the recommendations by the Committee will be considered by the Minister of Finance in the development of the 2011 federal budget.
The deadline for comments is tomorrow (August 13,) so act now. Suggestions can be e-mailed to FINA@parl.gc.ca. The limit is 5 pages - which should be more than enough to demand fiscal sanity. Especially, if some basic measures, such as zero-based budgeting, long-term moratorium on public service hiring and using the Bank of Canada to consolidate government debts and to provide low-interest loans for infrastructure projects, - all these could be explained in just a few sentences.
Check out the recommendations, recently submitted by Christian Governance. Some of their suggestions, such as flat tax, as a first step towards abolishing all taxes on income, investments and savings, can only be implemented on a long run. But others, such as ending government handouts to NGOs and political parties, making the government less intrusive and restructuring the tax credits so that charitable gifts treated more favorably than political donations - these could be achieved right away. Even if the Conservatives can't get it all in a minority Parliament - making just a few steps in the right directions could save families hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
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