Well, the numbers are finally in...

I'd have to agree with you. My preferred thing to do with any excess is to eliminate the debt THEN start reducing taxes. Paying down the debt is something that can be completed, after which we can use that money for something else. Reducing taxes first eliminates money that can be used for other things. Another benefit to paying down the debt is not spending useless money on interest; more money that can later be used to reduce tax.

P.S.

Though it also does mean one other thing: All the bleating that the Tories were making about the latest budget (the extra $4.5 billion or so that the NDP demanded for the Liberals to stay in power) *surely* pushing the government into deficit were just complete and total hogwash....

True, but how much of the "NDP budget" is implemented in there so far?

Also, personally I'd rather have that money be spent on other things (such as repaying our debt) rather than some of the things it was spent on.

Oh yeah, me too.

But the Tories weren't *just* saying that the money could be better spent on other things (and I think the mantra of tax cuts came out)...I'm pretty sure the D-word was used....let's see here...

http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/govt03a.htm says $628 bills of gross federal debt.

What bugs me most is the EI surplus. We could pay off about 10% of our debt if we properly balanced the EI cash flow and flushed the stockpile. When/if we need that money back in EI, that's an acceptable excuse for a deficit budget.

While it's a good thing to have separate bank accounts for some things in one's life, at some point, it just gets silly.

Yes, the total of all things that the government owes is the gross debt. The net federal debt is:
- the gross debt less the assets of the government
(and is equivalent to)
- the summation of all previous deficits and surpluses
(which implicitly include interest costs within them)

Look at the bar chart in the original Finance Department link to see that it's (about) $500 billion.

As for the EI "surplus", it's a fiction. The EI surplus does not really exists, as the government MUST account for EI premiums as current revenue and EI payments as current expenses. What the EI surplus does show is the number of excess dollars that EI takes in veresus what it sends out. Effectively it's extra taxes these days, since EI *easily* takes in more then it needs to pay out.

But payroll taxes are relatively efficient forms of tax, so the government tries to maintain it as much as it can.....

True, dat. Of all the taxes I pay, I like the payroll taxation system the best.

I wish the gubmint would take better advantage of that system to encourage good social behaviour -- but I guess that would just make it much harder to implement.

I can (and do) already write off:
- Retirement savings
- Home purchase savings
- Educational savings and expenses
- Legal expenses related to employment
- Moving expenses

I'd like to see the gubmint roll up RRSPs and RESPs with CHBP and let me make larger contributions that could also be used:
- During a sabattical
- While caring for a child or infirm/elderly relative
- For child care
- To invest in a small business that creates jobs or to assist in becoming self-employed

On the subject of small business (to go off on another tangent), it really burns me up that maritime provinces are subsidizing the creation of really bad jobs with my dax dollars.