A roundup of some of the reaction following the release of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty鈥檚 2014 budget:
鈥淐anada has a total of 260,000 young people looking for a job. They would have liked to have seen something like a hiring tax credit in this budget鈥 There鈥檚 really not much in there. 鈥 鈥 NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair
鈥淲hat this government has given us is no plan for economic growth 鈥 My concern is that in order to grow an economy we need infrastructure spending, we need smart spending on education and training, we need smart spending to enhance trade relationships and research and innovation. What we鈥檙e not seeing is any vision or comprehensive plan.鈥 -- Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau
鈥淚f they want to move forward with the jobs grant program, I hope they put a focus on making sure that we prepare ourselves to take advantage of the European free trade deal that鈥as already been announced.鈥 -- Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil
鈥淔or some reason or another, (Harper) thinks everything is okay with the veterans and that certainly is not the case.鈥-- Retired Sgt. Ron Clark
鈥淣ow they鈥檝e released that we have no new programs, but we have $6 million for funeral costs for the Last Post Fund? That鈥檚 an absolute embarrassment.鈥 -- Kate MacEachern, former soldier and veterans鈥 advocate
鈥淲ell it鈥檚 the Olympic year, so we gave the budget a bronze. Some good things for small firms is action on the deficit -- huge for our members. We know today鈥檚 deficits are tomorrow taxes 鈥 But they did cut the employment insurance hiring credit. And that was a bit of a surprise to us.鈥 -- Dan Kelly, Canadian Federation of Independent Business
鈥淲e have actually been ignored in this budget. There is nothing in there that I鈥檝e heard so far that will give consumers any pleasure 鈥 Maybe there are some items in there, but if so they鈥檙e so well hidden that we can鈥檛 find them. I can鈥檛 imagine why it would be a big thrill for us as consumers at all.鈥 -- Bruce Cran, Consumers鈥 Association of Canada
鈥淥n the housing aspect, we were hoping for a long-term plan. More action in terms of the housing crisis in Canada 鈥 Concerning infrastructure, we鈥檙e still waiting for the design for these programs. The good news is they鈥檙e extending large broadband networks for rural areas of Canada.鈥 -- Claude Dauphin, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
There was lots of online reaction as well, from Green Party Leader Elizabeth May to a union group in B.C.:
Harper鈥檚 Olympic Budget falls well short of the podium -hs
鈥 Elizabeth May MP (@ElizabethMay)
3500 paid-internships to help 384000 youth in Canada. We need government to get serious about youth unemployment. No luck in
鈥 CFS-NS (@cfsns)
: Conservatives once again fail to promote a positive vision for Canada or meaningfully invest in the future.
鈥 PSAC BC Region (@psacbc)