Referenda and minister pay cuts…sort of!

The Conservative government is introducing balanced budget legislation that is a watered down version of the law they scrapped shortly after coming into power.

This new legislation would let the government run deficits without cabinet ministers facing cuts to their pay because of the way it proposes to calculate the deficit in relation to pay cuts. Under the proposed bill the government only needs to run a lower deficit then the previous year to avoid financial penalty.

A referendum requirement is being reinstated in the new bill anytime the government wants to implement a major tax increase to tax rates under The Health and Post Secondary Education Tax Levy Act, The Income Tax Act or The Retail Sales Tax Act. The referendum would be non-binding, thus totally pointless as there are no penalties should the government choose to ignore the outcome of the plebiscite.

-News4 Staff-

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