Author: Michael Holden

As a think tank dedicated to improving the long-term prosperity of western Canada, the Canada West Foundation will be paying close attention to the signals being sent by the region’s provincial governments and the federal government in their 2013/14 budgets.

Initiatives set out in the federal budget contain an additional layer of complexity for western Canada. As the four provinces vary considerably, new initiatives announced in the federal budget are bound to have differing effects across the West. For this reason, the focus of the Canada West Foundation’s federal budget analysis is less on specific measures and more on the broad principles that we hope govern the policy choices made in the budget.

The federal government will release its 2013/2014 fiscal plan on March 21. With the above challenges in mind, there are four areas we hope to see addressed in Thursday’s budget:

  1. Long-term strategic investments in public infrastructure
  2. Meaningful action on labour shortages and skills training
  3. Progress towards building social licence for pipeline and resource projects
  4. Removal of barriers to trade and investment in CanadaOur post-budget analysis, which will be available on March 22, 2013, will assess the degree to which progress is being made in these areas.