Canada: THE DOMINION: Tax Cut Ahead?

Canadians got a look last week at the shape of fiscal things to come. In the House of Commons, Finance Minister Douglas Abbott gave the Government's estimated appropriations for the fiscal year beginning April 1. Tax-weary citizens heard with relief that the Government was promising big cuts in spending.

The biggest cut ($918,000,000) will be made in the demobilization and reconversion program, now largely completed. All told, estimated expenses for the coming fiscal year total $1,995,878,635, about $906,000,000 less than for the current year.

Buried deep in Minister Abbott's 282 fact-laden pages were some interesting disclosures:

¶ The Mines & Resources Department plans to spend almost $3,000,000 at the new gold field at Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

¶ The Agriculture Department intends to end the present butter subsidy. That meant that the price of butter would soon be going up.

¶ The" National Defense Department wants only $240,000,000 (it got $501,000,000 this year).

¶ The Government plans to increase spending on atomic energy. It earmarked $5,573,000 for the nuclear research center at Chalk River, Ont., another $6,549,000 for the National Research Council, which got only $2,088,000 this year.

Balancing the cuts and increases, taxpayers could easily see that there was a happy gap between the $2,000,000,000 in estimated expenditures and the more than $2,500,000,000 the Government is currently collecting in taxes. Some cuts in taxes seemed sure.