Flaherty backs off budget balancing timetable
Posted Nov 8, 2011 02:56:37 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says worsening economic conditions will add almost $16 billion to the deficit in the next two years, and he will no longer be able to deliver on the government’s pledge to balance the budget by 2014.
Instead, the minister says it will take one, or possibly two, more years to completely eliminate the deficit that reached as high as $55.6 billion following the severe economic downturn that began in the fall of 2008.
Flaherty warns that following an initial recovery, conditions are darkening again and becoming more precarious. As such, he is paring down slightly austerity measures designed to balance the books as quickly as possible.
Flaherty says Ottawa will cut in half payroll taxes scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1 that would have raised premiums on workers by 10 cents per $100 of insurable earnings, and 14 cents for firms.
The changes will mean workers earning the maximum $43,000 of insurable earnings can expect to see their take home pay shrink by about $23 a year, while firms will be paying an additional $31 a year per employee.
