The Canadian federal budget of 2003 was unveiled on February 18, 2003. It was the first budget issued by Finance Minister

John Manley John Paul Manley (born January 5, 1950) is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the eighth deputy prime minister of Canada from 2002 to 2003. He served as Liberal Member of Parliament for Ottawa South from 1988 to 2 ...

who was given the job in May 2002 replacing

Paul Martin Paul Edgar Philippe Martin (born August 28, 1938), also known as Paul Martin Jr., is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 21st prime minister of Canada and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006. The son o ...

. It was also the last budget of Prime Minister

Jean Chrétien Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien is a law graduate from Uni ...

. In the previous fiscal year the Canadian economy had done well, despite the recent recession in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The budget saw another large surplus, which was enhanced by a shift to more stringent

accrual accounting Accrual (''accumulation'') of something is, in finance, the adding together of interest or different investments over a period of time. Accruals in accounting For example, a company delivers a product to a customer who will pay for it 30 days l ...

announced in the budget. The bill was largely seen as a departure from the fiscal austerity of the last several years. It had a wide range of new spending initiatives on

health care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

, child care, defence, education, and other social programs. The budget had only limited tax cuts, mostly directed at corporations. The budget set forth a plan of gradual reductions that would see corporate taxes fall well below American levels. The most important was the reduction of the Canadian Capital Tax.

Employment Insurance Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are funded by a compu ...

premiums were also cut.

References

External links

Budget 2003 - Ministry of FinanceCBC 2003 budget page

Canadian federal budget In Canada, federal budgets are presented annually by the Government of Canada to identify planned government spending and expected government revenue, and to forecast economic conditions for the upcoming year. They are usually released in Februa ...

Canadian budgets 2003 government budgets {{Canada-gov-stub