OTTAWA -- Budgets giveth and they also taketh away. Here is a look at some of the winners and losers in Finance Minister Bill Morneau's debut budget:
Winner: First Nations
The budget allocates $4.22 billion over five years for improvements, including $2.6 billion for on-reserve education, $1.8 billion for water and wastewater infrastructure, $634.8 for child and family services, $969.4 million over five years for education infrastructure and $554.3 million for housing needs.
Winner: Veterans
The disability award for vets will rise to $360,000, retroactive to 2006, while the earnings loss benefit to injured vets will rise to 90 per cent of pre-release salary. The government will re-open nine veterans' service offices across the country and add a 10th office. The government says this means $5.6 billion more in direct payments to veterans and families over five years.
Winner: Students
Canada student grants will rise to $3,000 from $2,000 for low-income students, to $1,200 from $800 for middle-income students and to $1,800 from $1,200 for part-time students. Total: $1.53 billion over five years.
Winner: Families
The new $10-billion Canada Child Benefit will provide tax-free cheques of as much as $6,400, depending on the family situation.
Winner: Those seeking EI benefits
Rules will be changed to make it easier for new entrants to the job market and for those re-entering the market to qualify for benefits. The wait period for the first EI cheque will drop to one week from two. Benefit periods will be extended by five weeks in areas with the sharpest increases in unemployment.
Winner: Infrastructure plans
The document sets aside $11.9 billion for improvements to transit, water and green infrastructure and social infrastructure.
Winner: Arts and Culture
The CBC will get $675 million over five years, with another $550 million for the Canada Council for the Arts.
Winner: Canadian Coast Guard
The Kitsilano search and rescue lifeboat station, closed under the previous government, will re-open as a coast guard base with an expanded environmental response capability: Cost: $23.6 million over five years.
Winner: The environment
A low-carbon economy fund gets $2 billion over two years beginning in 2017-18. Another $1 billion over four years goes to support future clean technology investments, as well as $130 million over five years to support clean technology research and development.
Losers: Small businesses
The government will not proceed with reductions in the small business tax rate promised in the last Conservative budget. They would have dropped the rate from 11 per cent to nine per cent on the first $500,000 of qualifying income as of Jan. 1, 2019. Instead, the rate will fall to 10.5 per cent, and future cuts are being deferred.
Losers: National Defence
Billions in planned equipment spending is pushed off past the next election.
Losers: Tax breaks
The budget undoes some of the former Conservative government's targeted tax breaks, including tax credits for tuition and textbooks and children's fitness and arts costs and income-splitting for families with children.
