2005 Canadian federal budget
| Presented | February 23, 2005 |
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| Passed | June 28, 2005 |
| Parliament | 38th |
| Party | Liberal |
| Finance minister | Ralph Goodale |
| Total revenue | C$222.2 billion |
| Total expenditures | C$209 billion |
| Program Spending | C$175.2 billion |
| Debt payment | C$33.8 billion |
| Surplus | C$13.2 billion‡ |
| Debt | C$481.5 billion |
| Website | http://www.fin.gc.ca/budget05/pdf/bp2005e.pdf The Budget Plan 2005 |
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‡Surplus was used to pay down federal debt. ‹ 2004
2006 ›
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‡Surplus was used to pay down federal debt.
The 2005 Canadian federal budget was the budget of the Government of Canada for the 2005–2006 fiscal year. It was presented on February 23, 2005, by Finance Minister Ralph Goodale. It was the first Canadian federal budget presented by a minority government since that of Joe Clark was defeated 1979.
Having fewer than half the seats in the Canadian House of Commons meant that the governing Liberal Party of Canada had to win the support of members of other parties for the 2005 budget to pass. Without that support, the budget would have been defeated, and new elections would likely have been called.
In the 2005–06 fiscal year, the government had a large surplus of expected revenues over expenses, making the government able to fund a wide array of new initiatives. The budget bill (C-43) received Royal Assent on June 28, 2005. In order to gain the necessary support of the New Democratic Party (NDP) the budget was amended (Bill C-48) and given assent three weeks later following considerable debate.
The budget was the eighth balanced budget in a row presented by the Liberal government. It contained minor tax cuts for both businesses and individuals over a five-year period. These cuts, however, were mostly scheduled to begin in the latter years of the five-year period, which meant that the majority of them were unlikely to occur before the next election was held.
The personal income tax cut raises the basic personal exemption to $10,000 from its former level of just over $8,000 over the five-year period. This was projected to result in an average tax savings of $16 for each Canadian in 2006, with the final total reaching $192 at the end of the five-year period. The basic personal exemption is indexed to inflation, so it would likely have risen to roughly $9,000 over the five-year period without the changes.
The budget also contained $12.7 billion for the Department of National Defence over the following five years. However, not all of this money was new funding and, as with most of the budget, it was back-loaded. The total new funding for 2006 was to be $500 million.
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