As you most likely already know, Finance Minister Ralph Goodale delivered the first minority government budget since 1979 on Wednesday in Ottawa, and he didn't hold back in terms of spending initiatives.

Along with billions of dollars committed to big-ticket items such as defence, the environment and foreign aid, there were actually a number of changes that could affect your financial plan and present new savings and investment opportunities.

In case you haven't had a chance to wade through the media coverage yet, I thought you would appreciate this quick overview of some key measures from this year's federal budget and what they could mean to you:

• Contribution limits for all registered plans, including RRSPs, deferred profit-sharing plans, pension plans and money purchase plans are now slated to rise to $19,000 in 2007, increasing by $1,000 each year until 2010, when they hit $22,000.
  
  
• The rule that kept Canadians from investing more than 30% of their registered assets in foreign securities has now been dropped completely. (This is good news for investors, as it will eliminate investment products that circumvent foreign property rules and ultimately cost you extra money.)
  
  
• Bullion and silver coins and bars are now qualified investments for registered plans, providing the gold is of 99.5% purity and the silver 99.9% purity. (This means one more asset class that you can hold in your RRSP, and more options is always a good thing.)
  
  
• The basic personal exemption rate on personal taxes rises to $10,000 by 2009 from its 2004 taxation year level of $8,150 (though mainly viewed as helping low and middle income families, all Canadians will benefit as all taxpayers claim this basic personal amount).
  

Obviously, this space does not allow me to highlight or comment on every budget initiative that could affect your financial plan. Should you have any questions about the federal budget please contact us by email, or give us a call at (306) 757-2121, and we'd be happy to help you out.

Yours truly,

Tactical Asset Management, Inc.
phone: (306) 757-2121
fax: (306) 347-3655
e-mail: inquiry@tacticalassetmgmt.com
website: www.tacticalassetmgmt.com