STATEMENT

For Immediate Release

April 16, 2024

Ottawa, ON– Mel Arnold, Member of Parliament for North Okanagan-Shuswap, released the following statement today in response to the 2024 federal budget introduced in the House of Commons:

“Today, Prime Minister Trudeau introduced his ninth consecutive deficit budget that is adding to Canada’s unprecedented public debt that has already increased inflation and interest rates.

“Budget 2024 both increases and compounds financial stressors already affecting Canadian citizens, employers, communities, and local governments who all face continuous tax hikes to pay for Trudeau’s deficits.

“Canada is now spending more on debt interest than it is on healthcare services, and trends like this will be worsened by this latest short-sighted Trudeau budget.    

“Despite new inflationary spending, the Trudeau government continues to fail to connect federal resources with real actions and investments that are long overdue.

“Trudeau has cut funding for protecting British Columbia’s waters and ecosystems from invasive mussels and failed to support enhanced mental wellness and addiction treatment services while contractors with connections to his party continue to rake in hundreds-of-millions of dollars.

“I am disappointed in this budget because it does not deliver the support or policies that the North Okanagan-Shuswap needs today to increase housing, fight the opioid epidemic, support mental wellness, increase public safety, and restore the security and stability that we all need.

“I will continue to assess Budget 2024 and work with local governments and organizations, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, in an effort to connect our communities with opportunities that may exist in the budget.

“I will also continue to work with my Conservative colleagues towards forming a federal government that respects and truly supports the lives and hard work of its citizens.”

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