NEP and The Federal Budget
The 1980 federal government budget introduced by Minister of Finance Allan MacEachen projected a reduction of federal deficits from $14.2 billion in 1980 to $11.8 billion in fiscal 1984 due primarily to substantial increases in revenues from the oil and gas sector while maintaining expenditures. Some economists speculated the NEP would discourage large-scale oil investment projects and thus reduce these projected revenues. Whether or not the NEP itself was the cause, the program failed to deliver the anticipated revenues and, by 1983, the Department of Finance had concluded that the federal government had established a structural deficit of $29.7 billion, an increase from 3.5 per cent of GNP in 1980 to 6.2 per cent of GNP in 1983.
Read more about this topic: National Energy Program
Famous quotes containing the words federal and/or budget:
“Goodbye, boys; I’m under arrest. I may have to go to jail. I may not see you for a long time. Keep up the fight! Don’t surrender! Pay no attention to the injunction machine at Parkersburg. The Federal judge is a scab anyhow. While you starve he plays golf. While you serve humanity, he serves injunctions for the money powers.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)
“You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising is right and the budget is big enough.”
—Joseph E. Levine (b. 1905)