Tri-City residents can expect to see more cash coming to the region as a result of Thursday's budget, Conservative MP James Moore said immediately after his party's first majority financial plan was delivered.
The Tory MP for Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam, who is minister of heritage and official languages, said future funding for local infrastructure projects as well as centennial celebrations for Port Coquitlam and Port Moody is on the books.
And he said the $417 million committed by the feds for the Evergreen Line - expected to be built from Lougheed to Coquitlam town centres by the summer of 2016 - is also firm. "All of that money is protected and moving forward," he said.
Responding to the Tories' controversial move to push the age of retirement from 65 to 67, Moore pointed to the ever-shrinking gap between workers and retirees in Canada.
"When the [Old Age Security] system was created in the 1960s, the reality was there was seven workers to every one retiree," he said. "Now there are four workers for every retiree and, in a few years, two workers for every retiree. We believe the seniors deserve to have a healthy retirement income that is supported by the OAS system and the [Canadian Pension Plan].
"The changes don't start until 2023 and with a seven-year phase-in," Moore, 34, said. "I think it's a pretty modest approach to bringing security to one of the most important programs for people's retirement years."
The change will affect Canadians under the age of 54.
On slashing 19,200 federal public sector jobs over the next three years - or 4.8% of the workforce - Moore countered those employees will get "handsome" buyout packages. The cuts, he said, are "hardly draconian... and there will still be more civil servants working for Canada then there were when we started" in 2006. "We had to find savings."
Fin Donnelly, NDP MP for New Westminster-Coquitlam, said tinkering with the OAS wasn't part of the Tories platform when they campaign last May. The New Democrats also criticized the ruling party for changing the funding formula for federal health transfers to provinces, and for failing to mention climate change initiatives.
In a press release, the NDP said it would oppose the budget "unless it was amended to focus on the priorities of Canadians."
