OTTAWA 鈥� Finance Minister Jim Flaherty opened a rift within the Conservative cabinet Wednesday by casting doubt on the wisdom of using next year's expected budget surplus to expand income-splitting ahead of the next election.
Income-splitting for families with dependents under the age of 18 was a key promise the governing Tories made in the last election, but with a catch: it was contingent on a balanced budget.
The federal budget Flaherty introduced Tuesday projects a $6.4-billion surplus in 2015, just in time for the coming election.
On Wednesday, however, Flaherty lobbed a grenade into the Conservative caucus room when he said he personally thinks blowing part of that money on a promise that's expected to cost about $2.5 billion is not the way to go.
"I would pay down public debt and reduce taxes more, myself, but I am only one person," he said in a post-budget interview before the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce.
"There's a tendency among politicians to always 鈥� regardless of political stripe 鈥� to always want to throw baubles out the window and pretty things 鈥� 'Look over here,' you know," he laughed.
"And this is a shiny thing. Vote for me because I have a shiny thing. I'm not there."
Prudent fiscal management has historically served sa国际传媒 well, Flaherty said, but federal governments lost their way over the last 50 years and became spendthrifts.
"We've created a large public debt and we should deal with it and we should knock it down," he added. "Not for my sake, it won't make any difference to me, but it will make a big difference to the next generations."
Just a few hours later, cracks started to appear within the Tory caucus about whether they should abandon their 2011 election promise 鈥� and whether Flaherty should continue to serve as finance minister.
Treasury Board President Tony Clement and Employment Minister Jason Kenney said they're behind income-splitting, while Quebec MP Maxime Bernier sided with Flaherty.
Alberta MP and finance committee chair James Rajotte acknowledged that the policy would benefit only a small percentage of the population.
"It's a simple fact that there's a certain percentage of the population 鈥� those families with two parents that have incomes that are very disparate 鈥� benefit from it," Rajotte said.
"Those situations where two people working outside the home, with incomes that are comparable, obviously they're not going to benefit not nearly as much from a measure like this."
Flaherty should "absolutely" stay on as finance minister, Rajotte said.
