| Year: | 1990 |
| Budget of the Canadian Federal Government | |
| Presented: | 20 February 1990 |
| Parliament: | 34th |
| Party: | Progressive Conservative |
| Minister: | Michael Wilson |
| Previous Budget: | 1989 Canadian federal budget |
| Previous Year: | 1989 |
| Next Budget: | 1991 Canadian federal budget |
| Next Year: | 1991 |
| Country: | Canada |
The Canadian federal budget for fiscal year 1990–1991 was presented to the House of Commons of Canada by finance minister Michael Wilson on 20 February 1990. It was the second budget after the 1988 Canadian federal election.
The 1990 budget did not introduce a major tax change, as income taxes were reformed in prior years and the Goods and Service tax was scheduled for implementation on January 1, 1991.
Although not part of the 1990 budget, three major tax changes are implemented as of January 1, 1991:[1]
The 1990 budget sets out a control plan for expenditures and was predicted to yield $2.8 billion in savings in fiscal year 1990-1991 and $3.3 billion in fiscal year 1991-1992. This control plan complements the expenditure reductions of December 1989. Most government transfers to individuals, including old age pensions, child allowances, veterans' benefits and unemployment insurance, were not included.
Some programs were constrained to a 5%-annual growth until 1992:
Some programs are frozen altogether:
Herb Gray, interim leader of the Official Opposition, rejected many features of the budget, notably the cuts to transfers to provinces and capping of research and science budget. Paul Martin, Liberal MP and candidate to the leadership of the Liberal Party, also rejected the budget as a symbol of the Conservatives' mismanagement of the economy.[2]
Audrey McLaughlin, leader of the New Democratic Party held that the budget would not help students or homeless people and decried the lack of environmental measures, despite prior ambitious declarations made by the Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the Minister of Environment Lucien Bouchard.[2]
The budget is characterized by Gérard D. Levesque, Quebec's finance minister, as a smokescreen and an unfair budget. He particularly criticizes the cuts to EPF as a tentative to download the federal deficit onto the provinces and the abolition of the Canadian Exploration Incentives Program that benefited mine exploration in Quebec rural areas (and especially Abitibi). The minister warns that the federal budget will likely lead tax increases for Quebec taxpayers to offset the downfall in revenues.[3]