OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government has posted a whopping $12-billion budget surplus for the fiscal year that ended March 31.
It marks the ninth consecutive federal surplus - a string that began under the former Liberal government. And it's a lot larger than the $8-billion surplus forecast by Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in his first federal budget delivered on May 2.
From April 2005 until March 2006, Ottawa took in $12 billion more in booming corporate and personal income tax revenues than was spent, according to figures released today by the Finance Department.
Some of the surplus has already been spent by the Tories, who committed $3.6 billion of it for new spending on things like defence and transportation.
The rest of the surplus - just over $8 billion - will be spent on reducing Canada's $490-billion debt.
Some tax payments are still coming in and adjustments will be made before the official surplus is announced in the fall, finance officials say.
The sizeable surplus is bound to trigger controversy as provinces demand a greater share of the federal kitty, complaining of a fiscal imbalance between the two levels of government.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised to eliminate that imbalance.
http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/NationalNewsArticle.htm?src=n052587A.xml
SO the conservatives are just the same as the Liberals. No better. And people are still on a honeymoon with these people, who are planning to bring their own government down next year, con rumors, I just don't believe it.
It marks the ninth consecutive federal surplus - a string that began under the former Liberal government. And it's a lot larger than the $8-billion surplus forecast by Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in his first federal budget delivered on May 2.
From April 2005 until March 2006, Ottawa took in $12 billion more in booming corporate and personal income tax revenues than was spent, according to figures released today by the Finance Department.
Some of the surplus has already been spent by the Tories, who committed $3.6 billion of it for new spending on things like defence and transportation.
The rest of the surplus - just over $8 billion - will be spent on reducing Canada's $490-billion debt.
Some tax payments are still coming in and adjustments will be made before the official surplus is announced in the fall, finance officials say.
The sizeable surplus is bound to trigger controversy as provinces demand a greater share of the federal kitty, complaining of a fiscal imbalance between the two levels of government.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised to eliminate that imbalance.
http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/NationalNewsArticle.htm?src=n052587A.xml
SO the conservatives are just the same as the Liberals. No better. And people are still on a honeymoon with these people, who are planning to bring their own government down next year, con rumors, I just don't believe it.
