(The following article is from the February 15-28, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Information from the Ad Hoc Coalition for Women's Equality and Human Rights makes it clear that the Jan. 27 Tory budget does nothing to meet the needs of women. Circulated by Queen's University law professor Kathleen Lahey, this analysis notes that "women make up slightly more than half the population of Canada, and are directly responsible for caring for the majority of minor children in the country on a day to day basis." Lahey notes that "Budget 2009 not only fails to target the most vulnerable, but it seems to have been carefully crafted to exclude women from as much of the $64 billion in new deficit-financed spending and tax cuts as possible."

     For example, no gender equity requirements have been included in plans for infrastructure spending. Little of this spending will go to women, because jobs in the construction, manufacturing and primary industries are overwhelmingly male. None of this infrastructure spending is allocated to new childcare facilities, which are needed to enable women on the economic margins to enter paid work, or to funding existing childcare facilities.

     As announced previously, corporate income taxes have been cut from $6.3 billion in 2009/10 to $4.2 billion in 2010/11. The beneficiaries of these cuts include CEOs, directors, and owners of larger businesses, who are mostly male.

     Similarly, the $2.5 billion home renovation tax credit is available only to those who own a home, and who have enough income to spend $10,000 on qualified renovations in 2009 to get a tax credit of $1,350. Since women's average incomes ($27,000) are much lower than men's ($45,000), this program will widen the gender gap.

     The minor changes to Employment Insurance announced in the budget are only available to workers who already qualify for EI benefits. Since 1996, those working less than 35 hours per week have been denied benefits, affecting more women engaged in part-time, seasonal, contract, and "off market" employment. Nearly three times more men than women qualified for EI during the last reporting period.

     The personal income tax cuts totalling $1.885 billion in 2009/10 provide a $220 increase in the personal exemption, i.e. a tax cut of $33. This benefits taxpayers with at least $10,320 in assessable income in 2009, automatically excluding 40% of all women tax filers, whose incomes are already too low to pay income tax. Similarly, the tax break for higher categories provides less benefits for women, who earn lower average incomes at every level.

     The assortment of business income tax cuts totalling about $500 million annually (accelerated CCA, increased small business corporation limit, mineral exploration tax credits, customs tariff reductions) will benefit women much less than men, who own about 67% of businesses and corporate shares.

     For more information, visit http://www.womensequality.ca or http://www.egalitedesfemmes.ca.