The Conservatives and NDP are ripping apart the Liberal’s 2021 budget.
The Conservatives aren’t happy with the document, heavily criticizing the federal government’s plan.
Leader Erin O’Toole says Canadians were expecting a pandemic budget, but instead got an election budget “and a poor one at that.”
O’Toole slammed the Trudeau government Monday for what he says is a slow response to the COVID-19 pandemic and says this budget does nothing to answer calls from Ontario, Alberta, and other provinces “asking for more vaccines.”
“Justin Trudeau has moved too slow for this virus, it’s racing ahead of us now,” said O’Toole. “Now he is slow in providing real help for Canadians in this budget. This disappointment needs to stop.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh criticized the budget for not having a wealth tax, no excess profit tax, and “consultation instead of action on tax havens reform.”
Singh also criticized assistance for students calling today’s budget promises a “drop in the bucket” compared to the impact young people have felt during the pandemic, “During the pandemic, Justin Trudeau offered Canadians the least help possible. The NDP had to force him to do better. And today’s budget is no different: Justin Trudeau chooses to continue to give his rich friends a free ride, he chooses to continue to fail young people who are facing crushing debt, he chooses to continue to protect the profits of big pharmaceutical companies and for-profit long-term care providers, he chooses to continue to spend billions on a pipeline and fossil fuel subsidies, and he chooses not to do what is needed to fix the housing crisis and historic injustices faced by Indigenous people.”
**With files from Pat Siedlecki and Wendy Gray