It showed, among other things, that the public is suspicious, even hostile, to tax cuts for high-income earners and for corporations. Similarly, cuts in corporate taxes kick in immediately for small companies, but are phased in for larger ones. Still, Mr. Martin has kept the emphasis in this budget on tax cuts, in part, through sleight of hand. Other spending decisions, such as increases for the Defence Department and the RCMP, were widely leaked beforehand. In the wake of the furor over job-creation grants at Human Resources Development Canada, Mr. Martin's advisers were fearful that every penny of new spending would be regarded by the media and the public with a jaundiced eye.
Health care remains the public's highest priority by far, as a slew of recent polls have shown.
An Angus Reid poll conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV, for example, showed that 72 per cent of Canadians say spending on health care should be the priority over the next five years. If the budget has a conspicuous political vulnerability, it is in the area of health. However, that will be dismissed as inadequate by the provinces. Ottawa says it has increased transfers to the provinces for health and education by 25 per cent over the past two years. Furthermore, the Health Minister, Allan Rock, will sit down with his provincial counterparts this spring to discuss the future of the health-care system.