Barrie MP Patrick Brown says Barrie residents stand to benefit directly from the 2008 federal budget announced Tuesday.

The budget includes funds for infrastructure, new grants for students and a new board to improve and managed employment insurance.

Brown said he was impressed with the budget’s emphasis on law enforcement, which includes $400 million set aside to hire more police officers.

“2,500 police officers coast-to-coast is going to mean the average of eight for every city the size of Barrie,” he said. “Eight more police officers in Barrie will give our chief more tools to do his job.”

The budget also included $33 billion over seven years for infrastructure.

Brown said part of this was to make the gas tax transfer permanent, something he feels strongly about.

“As a former city councillor, I saw first-hand the needs the cities have and how much of a big boost this gas tax transfer was to urban infrastructure and I think this is tremendous news for Barrie,” he said.

The budget also includes help for the Ontario automotive industry and new passports, which will be valid for 10 years.

“We get inundated with passport requests at our office and I think a lot of Canadians are frustrated by the process and I think this will certainly alleviate some of that concern,” Brown said.

The Barrie MP said he is impressed with the budgets announcement of new registered tax-free savings accounts, which to start in 2009.

“I think this is a challenge to Canadians that if you are going to prudent with your resources and you are going to put some into savings there is a benefit and we are going to reward Canadians who do that,” Brown said.