Photo: Contributed

"There's things that I'm happy to see and things that I'm disappointed to see."

That was South Okanagan-West Kootenay MP Richard Cannings' take on the federal budget released Tuesday, which included some lines that he considers a step in the right direction, and others that are discouraging.

"I think the $5,000 incentive for people to buy a new electric vehicle is a great thing, it's something we've been calling on the government to do," Cannings said, but it's only the first step. 

"I was hoping it would be a little broader, in terms of covering plug-in hybrids as well," he continued. "And the other disappointing thing is how little they're putting into electric vehicle infrastructure. People aren't going to go out and buy those cars if there's nowhere to charge them on their route."

Another issue for Cannings is the lack of funding for people's medication. 

"Probably the biggest disappointment overall is a lack of anything on Pharmacare. They continue to talk the talk and not walk the walk," he said. "They've done nothing to make coverage universal so all Canadians can buy the prescription drugs they have to buy."

He said when people can't afford their medication, they get sick and end up in the hospital, costing far more taxpayer dollars than simply making sure they could afford their prescription in the first place. 

But it wasn't all bad news in the budget for Cannings. He said he found a "nice surprise" in the form of a boost to first-time home buyers looking for help on their mortgage. 

Qualifying buyers may be able to have the government pick up part of the cost of their mortgages to lower their monthly payments, with the amount of help depending on their income and whether they're buying a newly built or existing home.

"I was going to start lobbying the government minister about this, and here it is in the budget! So that was a nice surprise," Cannings said. 

A final sticking point for Cannings was a lack of incentives for people to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions in their homes.

"Probably once a month I get up in the House of Commons and say the government should reinstate the EcoEnergy retrofit program, a really successful program that the Conservative government had," Cannings said. "People retrofitted their homes and made them more energy efficient, it saves us in greenhouse gas emissions. [But] what they've done is some odd program to give $300 million to the municipalities of Canada, if they want it, to administer their own programs on retrofits."

He said he has heard from municipalities that this structure of funding isn't what they had in mind, since it will involve them dealing with private property. 

"They wouldn't mind getting money to retrofit municipality's properties, but not private homes and dealing with all those issues. So it seems like a very inefficient, unpopular way to spend money on retrofits. I think the government missed the boat on that one."