By Tristan Tuckett (@TristanTuckett on Twitter)

Chamber President Has Mixed Feelings About Budget 2016

Mar 23, 2016 | 5:20 PM

LETHBRIDGE – The Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce has responded to the federal budget unveiled on Tuesday.

President Melody Garner says they have mixed feelings about the financial document tabled by Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

On one side, they support the implementation of an innovation strategy, as well as funding for research and development at Canada’s post secondary institutions, changes to make it easier to access Employment Insurance, and the boost for student grants that will help build up the workforce.

However, Garner is disappointed the government decided to push back the small business tax reduction, as businesses are already struggling to hire more workers.

The Chamber is also concerned about the deficits the government will run over the next few years. Garner believes there needs to be a plan to pay that money back and points out the Chamber would still like to see a return to balanced books by the end of the Liberal’s term.

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Talking about jobs, Garner says this budget will probably balance out across the country, however it will fall short provincially, “Those jobs for infrastructure are going to be around transit and affordable housing and that kind of stuff, so it might spread out. From a provincial perspective though, are we going to be able to recoup the job losses that we’ve had in this province, I personally don’t see that with this budget.”

One area that could be promising for southern Alberta involves the $1-billion announced to support future clean technology investments. Garner feels this is something the province should take advantage of as a way to diversify the economy.