XPost: can.politics, bc.politics   
   From: Panca@nyet.ca   
      
   As an economist said this morning on a CBC interview: 'Anyone can balance a   
   budget or show a surplus on paper; you have to look deeper to see which   
   programs have been cut or which transfer payments have been reduced.   
      
   _______________________________________________________   
   By The Canadian Press — CP — Nov 12 2014   
      
   Mulcair calls the Harper government surplus prediction ‘a mirage’   
      
      
   TORONTO - Federal New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair says the Harper government's   
   projected surplus for next year is a "mirage" because it is based on billions   
   of dollars in cuts to much needed programs.   
      
   Mulcair made the comments in Toronto moments after Finance Minister Joe Oliver   
   delivered the government's fall fiscal and economic update, which predicts a   
   $1.9-billion surplus for next year.   
      
   That is lower than the $6.4-billion surplus projected in February, mostly due   
   to the government's multibillion-dollar cost-cutting measures for families with   
   children, which include higher child-care benefits and a controversial   
   income-splitting plan.   
      
   Mulcair says only 14 per cent of Canadians would benefit from the Tories'   
   income-splitting proposal and accuses the government of "taking from the poor   
   to give to the rich."   
      
   He says the NDP will be fighting the income-splitting proposal because it makes   
   no social or economic sense.   
      
   His party's top priority, Mulcair says, will be avoiding any cuts to health   
   care, rolling back cuts to veterans programs and making sure that universal,   
   affordable, quality childcare "gets done."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)