Ottawa: On May 2, 2011, Canadians chose a strong, stable, majority, national Conservative Government because of its ability to provide for the financial security of Canadians. Today, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty delivered on that mandate by presenting a Budget that will support Canadian families and communities, invest in our healthcare system, defend the rights of law abiding citizens, and promote Canadian values such as democracy, human rights and justice on the world stage.

“Budget 2011, the second part of Canada’s Economic Action Plan, will benefit many areas of the lives of the residents of south west Saskatchewan. It will support job creation, strengthen families and communities and invest in the economy of tomorrow,” said Anderson.

Canada’s Economic Action Plan will ensure that our country stays at the forefront of economic growth and job creation while working to return to a balanced budget by 2014–15. Canadians have worked hard to achieve this economic recovery, and we are demonstrating the Government’s commitment to this goal by quickly reintroducing the Next Phase of Canada’s Economic Action Plan.

Canadians, including families, small business owners, students, seniors, volunteer firefighters and farmers, will all gain something from the measures included in this budget.

Some measures that will benefit rural Saskatchewan are:

·         Enhancing the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) for those seniors who rely almost exclusively on their Old Age Security and the GIS. This measure will provide a new top-up benefit of up to $600 per year for single seniors and $840 per year for couples. This measure represents an investment of more than $300 million per year, and will improve the financial security of more than 680,000 seniors across Canada;
·         Attracting more health care workers to under-served rural and remote communities by forgiving up to $40,000 of the federal component of Canada Student Loans for new family physicians and up to $20,000 for nurse practitioners and nurses;
·         Introducing a new $2,000 Family Caregiver Tax Credit amount that will provide tax relief to caregivers of infirm dependent relatives including, for the first time, spouses, common-law partners and minor children;
·         Introducing a new Children’s Arts Tax Credit on up to $500 per child of eligible fees associated with children’s artistic, cultural, recreational and developmental activities;
·         Introducing a $3,000 Volunteer Firefighters Tax Credit amount for volunteer firefighters who perform at least 200 hours of service in their communities.

·         The Government is also providing $50 million for a two year Agricultural Innovation Initiative that will support knowledge creation and transfer and increased commercialization of agriculture innovations. Agriculture related businesses across Canada, including those in Saskatchewan, will benefit from these investments.
·         This fall there will be a legislated end to the long gun registry but until then this government will continue to provide funding of $20.9 million to continue to waive firearms licence renewal fees for all classes of firearms. From May 2011 until revocation of the gun registry, no firearms owner will have to pay a fee of up to $80 to renew a licence.

“By electing a majority Conservative government, Canadians gave us a four year mandate to focus on the economy and pass measures aimed at strengthening both our economic recovery and our country. We are following through on these commitments with this parliamentary agenda. We call on the Opposition parties to support this government to pass this budget which will allow us to continue the journey to economic stability. Canadians need lower taxes, economic stability and job security,” said Anderson.