B.C. and the budget: What's old is new again

The new  BC child tax credits amount to no more than $25 per child per year for eligible families. An article from the Victoria Times Columnist  - Victoria BC

There is an old joke in which a professor asks a student, "What does 'paradigm' mean?" And the student, who may not have been listening that closely to the professor's clever language, blurts out a guess: "Is it 20 cents?"

So what is this new paradigm which Finance Minister Kevin Falcon talks about in the government's budget and fiscal plan for the next three years? At first blush, this paradigm presumably applies to the current Christy Clark government, as well as to any future government following the next B.C. election. Indeed, the budget speech implies that the B.C. Liberals have been artful practitioners of this new paradigm for more than a decade, a world leader then in fiscal prudence, in managing spending and taxation wisely.

But wait - loads of examples of an old paradigm are evident in this budget. The overall budgetary stance is rather old school: maintaining support for health care and education expenditures, although at lower levels of new investments, while holding the line or freezing most other government ministries and program areas. The finance minister announced that the government is preparing to sell some surplus assets that sit on government's books, costing money with no return to taxpayers. The stated goal is "to take those surplus assets and turn them into economic generators across British Columbia." Those in the provinces with memories of the 1980s may feel a twinge of déjà vu, recalling the privatization measures and policies of past provincial administrations
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New Arts Tax Credit Introduced

The Canadian government recently introduced the Canadian Children’s Arts Tax Credit (CATC), a new, non-refundable tax credit based on expenses paid for the cost of registration of children in an eligible program of artistic, cultural, recreational or developmental activity. Did you know you may be entitled to a tax break for lessons at our schools?

The Canadian government recently introduced the Canadian Children’s Arts Tax Credit (CATC), a new, non-refundable tax credit based on expenses paid for the cost of registration of children in an eligible program of artistic, cultural, recreational or developmental activity. Here’s a few things you should know about the CATC, and whether you’re eligible:

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