Budget 2010 takes action to support vulnerable Canadian families and communities by:

• Providing $6.6 million to enhance the existing Federal Victims Strategy, including facilitating access to Employment Insurance sickness benefits for families affected by a crime.
• Improving the taxation of the Universal Child Care Benefit so single parents receive comparable tax treatment to single-earner two-parent families.
• Providing $62 million to support Canada’s elite athletes and encourage participation in amateur sport.
• Reforming the disbursement quota to reduce administrative complexity and better enable charities to focus their time and resources on charitable activities.
• Improving Registered Disability Savings Plans to allow more flexibility for contributions.
• Providing $45 million over three years for the Enabling Accessibility Fund to remove barriers for Canadians with disabilities.
• Providing $199 million to meet higher than expected funding needs in support of the settlement agreement with former students of the Indian residential school system.
• Providing $53 million to ensure further progress toward a prevention-focused approach to child and family services for First Nations children and parents.
• Reforming the Food Mail Program to improve access to affordable healthy food for Northerners.

Budget 2010 also stands up for those who helped build Canada by:

• Providing $2 million for a Community War Memorial Program.
• Improving access for military families to Employment Insurance parental and sickness benefits.
• Providing $10 million for the New Horizons for Seniors Program to support projects that focus on volunteering among seniors.
• Reaffirming the Government’s commitment to ensure that Canada’s retirement income system remains strong and efficient through spring consultations and a review of policy options at the May Finance Ministers’ meeting.

Budget 2010 fulfills Canada’s commitment to double international assistance by:

• Increasing the International Assistance Envelope, the principal means by which Canada allocates foreign aid, by $364 million, bringing it to $5 billion in ongoing annual support.
• Providing a further $800 million of loan resources and $40 million in subsidy resources to support concessional lending to the poorest countries through the International Monetary Fund’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust.

• Budget 2010 outlines a three-point plan for returning to budgetary balance over the medium term and well before any other G7 country.
  • First, the Government will follow through with the “exit strategy” built into the Economic Action Plan. Temporary measures in the Action Plan will be wound down as planned.
  • Second, the Government will restrain growth in spending through targeted measures. Towards achieving this objective, Budget 2010 proposes $17.6 billion in savings over five years.
  • Third, the Government will undertake a comprehensive review of government administrative functions and overhead costs in order to identify opportunities for additional savings and improve service delivery.
• The Government will not raise taxes. The Government will not cut major transfers to persons and other levels of government.
• As a result of the planned wind-down of the Economic Action Plan and the spending growth restraint measures in this budget, the deficit is projected to be cut by almost half to $27.6 billion in 2011–12, and cut by two-thirds to $17.5 billion in 2012–13.
• The debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to peak at 35.4 per cent in 2010–11 and then fall to 35.2 per cent in 2011–12 and 31.9 per cent by 2014–15.
• Program spending as a share of GDP is expected to decline from 15.6 per cent in 2009–10 to 13.2 per cent in 2014–15.

• Canada’s Economic Action Plan is delivering a $62-billion shot in the arm to the economy.
• By the end of this month, most of the $37 billion in planned 2009–10 federal and provincial/territorial stimulus will have flowed into the economy.
• Since July 2009, over 135,000 jobs have been created across the country.
• For 2010–11, the Action Plan will deliver a further $19 billion in federal stimulus spending, complemented by $6 billion in stimulus funding from provinces, territories, municipalities and other partners.
• 92 per cent of 2010–11 funding has been committed.
• The Government has commitments in place for almost 16,000 projects across the country under the Economic Action Plan. Over 12,000 of these projects have begun or have been completed.
• Canadians are benefiting from permanent tax relief. As well, millions of Canadian families took advantage of the temporary Home Renovation Tax Credit.
• Due to unprecedented demand under the ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes program, the Government is allocating a further $80 million to support additional retrofits by Canadian homeowners. In total, the Government has provided $585 million to the program under the Economic Action Plan.
• The Government is providing exceptional support for the unemployed, with total Employment Insurance (EI) payments up by more than $6 billion from last year. Enhancements to EI are flowing and continue to be available.
• The Government has committed all of the funding available for projects under the $4-billion Infrastructure Stimulus Fund.
• Almost all of the $500 million available under the Recreational Infrastructure Canada program has been committed to almost 2,000 projects across the country to build and upgrade hockey arenas, soccer fields, swimming pools and other community-based recreational facilities. Over 1,500 projects are already underway or completed.
• Over 3,500 projects are underway to improve social housing and First Nations housing across the country.
• Under the Knowledge Infrastructure Program, work has begun on 361 projects and an additional 20 projects have been completed.