News Flash

Budget falls short

 Ottawa's latest financial plan has come up woefully short for Mississauga residents most in need.
Announcing the budget Monday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty declared new money will help Canadian municipalities, including Mississauga and Peel, improve transportation services for residents, and do so in environmentally-responsible fashion.

The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route, which in Mississauga will follow the Hwy. 403/Eglinton Ave. corridor, is closer to fruition, thanks to a financial boost from Ottawa. Funds for post-secondary education and millions more to support key research and development initiatives will go a long way towards helping the average Canadian, Flaherty tells us. Dollars are also flowing for healthcare. Oh, yes, and hard-working, two-parent families are going to benefit as well.

That's good news, all of it, but what about the poor? This budget does not, in any meaningful way, help single-parent families struggling to find adequate, affordable shelter and put food on the table. Yes, a single parent earning $10,000 annually will receive a new working income tax benefit, but that will bring less than $20 a week.

Noticeably lacking in Ottawa's budget is a national strategy to tackle major social issues. A plan to combat poverty, particularly child poverty, is desperately needed.

Once again, the poorest of the poor, and their children, have been left out in the cold. And many find themselves on a waiting list for affordable housing in Peel that numbers more than 14,000.

United Way Peel CEO Shelley White had this, in part, to say about the feds' financial blueprint.
"We're pleased to see Ontario is going to receive some increased transfers and we're really hoping that translates into health and social services funding for the GTA."

Yet again, chronically underfunded agencies such as the United Way are left "hoping" badly-needed dollars are on the way. Too often, whether from Ottawa or Queen's Park, budgets fail to deliver on promises to help those most in need. Again, this is the case.

Sadly, while Flaherty and his colleagues -- including Mississauga-Streetsville MP Wajid Khan -- and their boss, our Prime Minister, are busy patting themselves on the back, thousands of Mississauga residents are left wondering if there's any help on the horizon.

Omar Alghabra, Liberal MP for Mississauga-Erindale, summed up this budget appropriately, suggesting it "fell miserably short of expectations."