
On Monday the Government of Canada presented its first Budget in almost two years. Not only that, it was the first Budget in Canadian history presented by a female Minister of Finance. Yay Canada!
Unsurprisingly, the Government’s focus in this Budget was on post-Covid recovery, but this Government takes a pretty broad view of what that means.
The first and most important thing about the Budget is that it comes with a lot of goodies for a lot of people and groups:
- $101.4 billion in new spending over three years to fuel the recovery and kick-start the transition to a green economy;
- $17.6 billion for green recovery via land/ocean conservation and exceeding Canada’s climate targets;
- $30 billion over five years and $8.3 billion per year after that to create and sustain a national child care program. Goal is a $10/day child care service by 2025-2026;
- $18 billion to build safer, healthier Indigenous communities;
- Extension of pandemic business and income support measures, such as wage and rent subsidies, through the fall;
- Extension of maximum period of employment insurance sickness benefits, from 15 weeks to 26 weeks;
- Projection of 1 million new jobs created by the end of the year;
- A new $15 federal minimum wage;
- $4.4 billion to help homeowners with green retrofits through interest-free loans of up to $40,000;
- $2.5 billion to build and repair 35,000 housing units for vulnerable Canadians;
- $1 billion for the tourism sector for festivals and cultural events;
- New tax of 10 to 20 per cent for luxury cars and aircraft worth more than $100,000 and luxury boats over $250,000; and
- $236.2 million over five years, and $33.5 million per year afterward, for the departments of National Defence and Veterans Affairs to eliminate sexual misconduct and gender-based violence in the military and to support survivors.