Yorkton-Melville MP Cathay Wagantall is concerned about the government. While the budget has been the main thing on the agenda in the past week, with the controversies that have surrounded it, like the SNC-Lavalin affair, she found that it was important to challenge the government. The opposition voted for thirty hours.
“We needed to do this to draw attention to the fact that there is more information that needs to be shared with regards to SNC-Lavalin. Voting against every item on the budget does not respect our perspectives on every item of the budget. What it did was enable was take up a great deal of the government’s time, when really they could have made a decision in ten minutes, to simply support our motion and moved on, which is really what I believe they’re going to have to do in the long run.”
She believes the scandal is one of the most significant in history, because it involves the government trying to influence the judicial branch, which is contrary to how Canada’s democracy is supposed to work.
“Six weeks ago, I honestly had this thought. We’re heading into an election, so surely there are no more where situations where this government is going to put themselves into an ethical dilemma, and boom.”
But what about the budget itself? She views it as a broken promise. While it was promised that the budget would have been balanced in 2019, this budget has $40 billion in spending, $20 billion being new spending.
“The reality is that the spending is out of control.”
She also doesn’t believe it is well thought out. Saying she believed it to be an example of the government trying to provide something for everyone, because the election is coming soon.
“First blush, you look at the funding to allow millenials to purchase a their first home, these are things that are important because of the dynamics of our economy... However, even yesterday when the finance minister was interviewed, he was asked, when CMHC provides this extra funding in the down payment scenario, what does that mean for the value of the home for the homeowner? What does that mean if they go to sell it and make a significant amount of money on their home? Is CMHC going to claw back some of that? He had to say, we haven’t really worked out the details yet, to me that’s disconcerting.”
That’s also a problem in areas where they agree. She notes that while, ideologically, she supports efforts to reduce homelessness, she doesn’t have enough information on how the government will run their program, and believes there are also programs in the private sector that, if supported, could work very well for the same goal.
“We can do it without a lot of this extra bureaucratic structure.”
In the effort to return to balance, she believes the government is spending too much money to try to influence other countries, making mention of challenging African countries to legalize abortion and add it to their maternal health care programs. She believes it’s inappropriate to try to influence the culture of other countries, and spend money doing so. She also believes that the government should focus on Canadian infrastructure projects, and is frustrated when pipelines are stymied in Canada while the government supports development elsewhere.
Even if one is in opposition, and generally displeased by how the government is operating, there are times when you have to admit they did something right. In this case, Wagantall does applaud the federal government for their increased funding of STARS Air Ambulance.
“That is one item that I am really pleased to see, and obviously it impacts our province as well.”
Going into the 2019 election, Wagantall said their party will take a different approach, and their platform will not have the most grandiose promises, but will focus on what they can deliver.
