19,200 federal public service jobs were eliminated, approximately 4.8% of all federal public service jobs. Of those, 7,200 would be via attrition, and 12,000 via layoffs.[5] About 4,800 of the affected employees work in Ottawa or Gatineau.[6]
As a result of the budget, in April 2012 the CBC announced it would cut its English Services budget by $86 million, of which $43 million was a reduction of programming and the remainder the elimination of 256 jobs.[12] It said it would also cut jobs in other departments, totalling 650 throughout the corporation.[13] The changes took effect in June 2012.[14] It cancelled the TV series InSecurity[15] and the television program Connect with Mark Kelley.[16] The changes included a reduction of the budget for CBC News by $10 million, the elimination of 88 jobs in that division, and the shuttering of its news bureaus in South America and Africa.[17]CBC Radio had its budget reduced by $3 million, eliminated 18 jobs,[18] and stated it would no longer commission radio dramas.[14] Other programming cuts included the radio program Dispatches and CBC Sports, which had a $4 million budget reduction and recast Sports Weekend as a seasonal program.[19] Compared to its budget in 2011–12, the CBC operating budget was cut by $27.8 million in 2012–13, $69.6 million in 2013–14, and $115 million in 2014–15.[20]
In November 2012, the Treasury Board president Tony Clement stated that the federal government had cut 10,980 public service jobs, of which 7,500 were by attrition or not replacing employees who had quit.[26]
Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance and Mining Exploration Credit
In 2011 Statistics Canada reported that the nonfinancial corporate sector (NFCS) was "sitting on more than $583 billion in Canadian currency and deposits, and more than $276 billion in foreign currency."[27]
The Canadian government has introduced measures to encourage business to invest in the Canadian economy. There were five federal corporate tax cuts over a period of five years with the last 1.5 percent reduction taking effect on 30 December 2011, bringing the federal corporate tax to 15 per cent.[27]
Flaherty explained that the one-year extension on the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit and Small Business Hiring Tax Credit introduced in the 2012 budget are business incentives "to compel Canadian corporations to invest some $525 billion of dead cash back into the economy."[28] In their analysis of the 2012 budget the Canadian Labour Congress argued that "non-financial corporations" have used their federal incentives and tax cuts[note 1] to "buy up their own shares, to increase dividends, and to increase their cash holdings" which amounted to "close to $500 billion of surplus cash" that they were not investing in job creation.[29]
Reception
This budget was criticized because of cuts to health care, the old age security, environmental protection and because of the expansion of $6 billion in corporate tax cuts for corporations, banks, and oil companies.[citation needed]
Notes
^Prior to 2007, the federal corporate income tax rate was over 20%. Since 2007 the corporate tax rate was lowered. By 2012 it was 15%.