Just the other week the government trimmed some programs. We trimmed about $1 billion from the federal budget. In total, the Government of Canada’s budget is about $200 billion– so the overall trimming was about one-half of one percent of overall spending. Since there has been talk in the press about all this, I thought I would go over some of the details.

The savings can be divided into three broad categories:
1. Unused spending that was put back into general revenues.
2. Administrative savings that didn’t affect programs.
3. Actual cuts that eliminated programs which were useless or ineffective.

Roughly a third of the savings came from not spending money that was previously allocated. None of the money in this category was actually cut. Government bureaucrats actually found out that they could come in under budget from time to time. Now, if you spent less in your budget than originally planned, would you save it, or would you just spend it to meet your projections? The new Conservative government decided to save the money.

The second category was administrative savings: Nothing glamorous, we just cut back on overhead for programs, and combined some spending in other areas. (Remember this when you hear about cuts to museums and literacy programs. The spending on these programs is still going on–just in more effective ways.)

The third area is: The elimination of useless programs, such as the Court Challenges Program. This was a program which paid a very select group of advocates to sue the government. The government would effectively hire lawyers on both sides of an issue to fight it out in court. It was a great program for lawyers, especially for those who wanted to attack family values, or force the government to spend taxpayers’ dollars.

All in all, when you look at the cuts they are very good for the country. They will help provide the savings necessary to provide tax cuts coming up this spring.

I’m Brad Trost, your Member of Parliament, and I welcome your feedback. Write or call my offices.