Federal budget day in Ottawa

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OTTAWA (NEWS1130) – Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is set to unveil the budget today, which is expected to contain up to $7 billion in cuts. The budget will be tabled at 1 p.m. PDT in the House of Commons.

Follow the 2012 federal budget with senior business editor Mike Eppel, Parliament Hill reporter Cormac MacSweeney and political affairs specialist John Stall. Their live updates will appear below. You can also post your comments and reaction:

Flaherty’s seventh budget will lay out the financial blueprint for the Harper majority government.

It’s expected to include $4 billion to $7 billion in cutbacks — a focus on trimming the ranks for bureaucrats and the public section, with the cuts phased in over three years.

With the phasing-out of several big spending initiatives, which were completed during the financial crisis, the belief is the government has more room to maneuver with the deficit about $10 billion less than forecast in November.

It will be a balance of austerity measures, including cuts to environmental monitoring, changes to Old Age Security benefits and possibly less funding for the CBC.

At the same time, there will be measures to boost job creation through the streamlining of the approval process for major projects in the resource section. The budget is expected to target a balancing of the books by 2015, just in time for the next federal election.

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