How Ottawa Spends, 1990-1991 : Tracking the Second Agenda

Katherine A. Graham Ottawa March 1990 vii The opinions expressed by the contributors to this volume are the personal views of the authors of the individual chapters, and do not reflect the views of the editor or the School of Public Administration of Carleton University. [...] Instead, his first major pronouncement was that "the deficit for this year is on track at $30.5 billion."l The fact that lithe magic number" of the size of the 1989-90 deficit was the first highlight of the budget speech is indicative of the unique policy environment surround ing the making of the 1990-91 Federal Budget. [...] The essence of the budget is a continued effort to fight the debt and deficit by federal expenditure control and by passing on part of the burden of the fight to other levels of government. [...] Can cellation of the federal commitment to the oil sands OSLO project in Northern Alberta beyond 1991 and the Canadian Exploration Incen tives Program does have an affect on the western economy, as does cancellation of the Polar 8 icebreaker project in the case of B. C.13 However, the west was spared cuts in the agricultural subsidy system, at least for the moment.14 Atlantic Canada will have to [...] Indeed, one of the theses put forward in the last edition ofH ow Ottawa ·Spends is that interest group politics would be a prominent feature of the second Conservative government.16 On the surface, the budget reflects a similar distribution of the burden of restraint among different Tracking the Second Agenda /13 types of interests.