MP Marilyn Gladu - Budget 2018 Response скачать в хорошем качестве

MP Marilyn Gladu - Budget 2018 Response

Hi, I`m Marilyn Gladu, Member of Parliament for Sarnia-Lambton and the Shadow Minister of Health. Today, the Liberal government presented their 2018 federal budget. I have to say that overall, I am disappointed - never has a government spent so much to accomplish so little. Again this year, the government will run a deficit three times what they promised - $18.6 billion dollars of your hard earned tax dollars. Even worse, there are no balanced budgets in sight. So, what do we expect to get locally for this? There is a $250 million dollar small craft harbor fund that we might be able to apply to for funding to help fix the Sombra Ferry. However, you would think if a government is overspending by nearly $19 billion, they could easily find $2.5 million to restore a vital border crossing. There is also a fund for small community newspapers - but that’s about it. No mention of infrastructure or mental health, two big issues I hear about in Sarnia-Lambton... From a health care perspective, I was disappointed that the $11 Billion dollars previously pledged for home care and palliative care over 5 years was cut to $11 billion over 10 years, and the word palliative care totally removed. This is especially disappointing considering that the Liberals supported my private members bill to create consistent access to palliative care for all Canadians, no matter where they live. They also pledged $4 million per year to address dementia in Canada. Considering that everyone in Canada knows someone with dementia, this amount is inadequate and shows that Liberals aren’t taking the issue seriously. Similarly, they pledged $10 million for PTSD for public safety officers, but $20 million for mental health care for inmates. There was no funding for opioid treatment centers, but they announced lots of funding for cannabis legalization. They announced funding to combat smoking tobacco too – but the amount towards promoting cannabis smoking is 10 times the amount of their anti-tobacco smoking campaign. The 2018 budget also states these Liberals would not tax prescription cannabis if it had a Drug Identification Number, but medically prescribed cannabis doesn’t have these numbers as of right now, so what are the Liberals planning, exactly? On pharmacare, they named Eric Hoskins, Kathleen Wynne’s ex- Health Minister, in charge of an advisory panel to look into it. That doesn’t make me hopeful. For seniors, they will do a “pilot project” in the Health Ministers’ province for $75 million, with nothing else pledged. As you can see, the Prime Minister and his Finance Minister have once again given us a big deficit, but not much to show for it. As your MP, you can count on me to hold this Liberal government to account on Budget 2018.