Finance Minister Jim Flaherty: Balanced Budgets

Balanced Budget Dept: As part of the cuts, 7,500 positions were eliminated through attrition, by cutting vacant jobs or not replacing people who left willingly, Clement said in a news release, according to CBC. Earlier this week, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the government was off by one year in its projected return to a balanced budget . Flaherty had said Canada would have a balanced budget by 2015-16, but a global economic slowdown means it will take until 2016-17. That's two years after the date Flaherty projected during the 2011 federal election and the federal government has cut 10,980 jobs as part of its bid to balance the budget, Treasury Board president Tony Clement said Friday. "We said we would eliminate 19,200 positions within the federal government and we are doing what we promised to do," he said. "In just six months, we have already achieved more than half the reductions set out in the budget. A leaner, more affordable government is good for taxpayers and it's important in terms of our ability to return to balanced budgets." (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.