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Alternative Federal Budget 2004: Fiscal and Economic Update

Technical Paper by CCPA

This paper is a brief update on the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ (CCPA) annual project, the Alternative Federal Budget. The Alternative Federal Budget is prepared by a coalition of community, labour, environmental, and social advocacy organizations, and outlines the broad policy options that will shape the budget-making process. In this report, the CCPA predicts that the 2003-04 budget will show a surplus of $6.6 billion. It also concludes the federal government can spend $10 billion more than it did in 2002-03 and still post this surplus.

The CCPA also points out, however, that the federal government depicts ominous predictions of the federal budget surplus, even going so far as to warn of budget deficits. According to the CCPA, this fiscal fear mongering is a strategic tactic the federal government uses to downplay budget surpluses so it claim that finances are too tight to accommodate reinvestment in services and programs for Canadians. The CCPA concludes that by portraying fiscal resources as modest, while sitting on undisclosed surpluses, the federal government evades its responsibility for funding social programs and other services Canadians deserve.

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Policy Publication Details

Author(s):	CCPA;
Publisher:	Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives [ Visit Website ]
Year Published:	2003;	Publisher Type:	Research Institute
Publicly Available:	Yes	Research Focus:	National;
Registration Required:	No	Language:	English
Payment Required:	No	Publication Format:	Adobe PDF

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Subjects / Categories:

Policy Articles / Fiscal & Budgetary / Federal & Provincial Budget
Policy Articles / Fiscal & Budgetary / Federal & Provincial Budget / 2003
Policy Articles / Fiscal & Budgetary

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Keywords / Tags:

alternative federal budget; budget surpluses; budget deficits; budget predictions; surplus predictions; social program spending;