With the federal government adamant to deliver on its promise of a balanced budget this year there wasn't a lot of wiggle room for gift-wrapped surprises, but there is still enough to help voters start drawing lines in the sand.
"Budgets can be terrific opportunities for Canadians to distinguish the governing party from those that wish to take over the reins of power," University of Northern B.C. political science instructor Jason Morris. "So hopefully there's lots in there that we can use come election time to help us distinguish the parties and help us make an informed choice."
The Conservatives' focus on national security and defense spending is a good place to start, said Morris. "That would appear to be an area closer ideologically to where the Conservatives are coming from and we can imagine that the federal Liberals, federal NDP wouldn't have done that sort of thing."
But Tuesday afternoon's release of the government's 2015 financial plan was also chock full of little things that it's clouding any sort of cohesive vision for the country, Morris added.
"These tidbits, maybe they do good things, maybe they're valued and supported by Canadians, but isn't it getting really hard to figure out what they all add up to?" he said. "In political science we try to make sense of the chaos and find patterns and trends. But it can be challenging when the government's doing so many things in so many places."
Among those places was in the realm of small business, where the Prince George Chamber of Commerce found some highlights.
"There wasn't a lot of room in here for many goodies, especially from a small business standpoint," said chamber CEO Christie Ray, but noted they were happy to see a balanced budget, small though it was. And the announcement of a small business tax break was especially welcome.
The government has proposed reducing the small business tax from 11 per cent to nine per cent by 2019. The tax affects private corporations with less than $15 million in taxable capital and generally applies to the first $500,000 per year of qualifying active income. The four-year spread means the tax rate is only decreasing by half a per cent annually.
"It's a fairly small amount for each of those years, but still it is a cut nonetheless," said Ray.
The local chamber also highlighted the extension of a capital cost allowance for investment in machinery and equipment used in manufacturing or processing.
"From what we understand it's a way for businesses to be able to write off bigger chunks of their capital infrastructure," Ray said, which in turn encourages new investment without having to immediately carry the cost.
"Considering why the budget was so small, we think the federal government did a good job in trying to ensure there were still wins," said Ray. "With only a $1.4 billion surplus with this budget, I don't know that there was a heck of a lot more they could have done."
Given the length of the budget documents, Morris said the government have appeared to make an attempt to cater to many interests, though they can't be all things to all people.
"So groups and organizations, individuals in society can be pleased but so, too, can others feel left out for what is not done," he said.
A missed opportunity for the federal government to step up was found in the lack of funding for wastewater infrastructure, said Coun. Garth Frizzell, who sits on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' (FCM) board of directors.
For the past year, the group representing local governments across the country has lobbied for assistance to address the upgrades required following new federal standards for wastewater treatment.
According to the group's submission to the government's pre-budget consultations, more than $18 billion worth of capital funds are required to fix the affected systems. The FCM was asking for $300 million for a new Clean Water Fund.
Though there was nothing forthcoming in Tuesday's budget, municipal issues were addressed with the announcement of a new public transit fund.
"Anyone who lives in or near our thriving and fast-growing cities knows the reality of traffic gridlock," Finance Minister Joe Oliver said in his budget speech.
The new fund is slated to provide $750 million over two years, starting in 2017 and $1 billion annually as of 2019.
"We had been pushing hard on that one but we didn't really expect as big an announcement as we got," said Frizzell.
And for a place like Prince George, where public transit dollars would be put to better use in an operational budget as opposed to infrastructure, there is still potential for the city to see some benefit.
"The bigger win might be in the fact that when the big cities aren't pushing as hard for transit funding on the New Build Canada Fund, that eases the pressure on the New Build Canada Fund and there's potentially more money there," Frizzell said.
The local government group was also cheered by the reconfirmation of existing affordable housing support, "but it's a four-year horizon," said Frizzell, which leaves it in the wait-and-see category. "That's not really long term, that's short-term funding."
The FCM was asking for the more than $2 billion their federal counterparts allot towards the file to be made permanent.
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