'Municipal-friendly:' Waterloo Region chair Seiling on 2016 federal budget
Reaction from Waterloo Region to Tuesday's federal budget has been positive. "Obviously the federal government has listened to the fact that municipalities are important players," regional chair Ken Seiling told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo.
"How it plays out, however, remains to be seen," Seiling added.
Much of the budget analysis has been about the size of the deficit. "That question was before the public in the last federal election," Seiling said, as the Liberals campaigned on having a deficit in their first budget. The public voted and expressed their view Seiling added, and "elected a government that said it was going to deficit finance for the next few years."
Transit, technology, education
Seiling noted several infrastructure points in the budget may be beneficial to the region, especially funding to replace existing transit bus stock.
The regional chair observed that medium-sized cities are concerned that a lot of money destined for urban centres might "go into the major centres, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver,so we'll wait and see how that plays out."
Seiling added that younger people in the region may benefit from the budget, as Waterloo Region was specifically mentioned by finance Minister Bill Morneau as a successful innovation hub. We may see money in the education, innovation and technology sectors, he suggested.