Highlights from throne speech focus on economy, deficit
Posted Mar 3, 2010 04:19:26 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – Highlights from Wednesday’s throne speech:
– Cut the deficit and work toward restoring “fiscal balance” by restraining program spending and ending stimulus funding as of March 31, 2011.
– Freeze salaries for the prime minister, cabinet ministers, MPs and senators, and freeze departmental operating budgets.
– Review departmental spending and administrative services; eliminate “unnecessary” appointments to agencies, boards and Crown corporations.
– Loosen foreign investment rules in key sectors, including the satellite, telecommunications and uranium industries.
– Cut environmental red tape for energy and mining projects.
– Increase the child-support payment for single-parent families, which currently stands at $100 a month for each child under age six.
– Introduce legislation to reform the fisheries management system.
– Push on with tough-on-crime justice agenda, including bills to increase penalties for violent offenders and those who commit sex crimes against children.
– Launch a digital economy strategy.
