Canadians can expect more “targeted” and “responsible” federal measures to fight inflation in the federal budget to be tabled next week, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday.
“You can’t compensate all Canadians for inflation. By doing that, we would only increase inflation. Canadians are smart, they understand that, ”she said, in a French passage of her speech.
The one who is also Deputy Prime Minister of Canada took advantage of her visit to a union training center in Oshawa, Ontario, to deliver a 23-minute speech with an economic flavor to a group of apprentice electricians. At the same time, she provided some clues to the content of the next federal budget, which she must reveal next Tuesday, March 28.
Chrystia Freeland perceives the current economic situation as a “turbulent time”, in which government action should not be too imposing, at the risk of “pouring oil on the fire” of inflation. However, it highlights the value of solidarity to justify strengthening the “social safety net” and helping the most disadvantaged through targeted programs.
Green investments
In the same breath, the Minister of Finance unveiled what would constitute two important investments in the budget: the “clean economy” and health.
On this first theme, Chrystia Freeland spoke of the need to direct the Canadian economy towards clean energy, clean technologies, battery manufacturing and electric vehicles. It is, according to her, “the most important economic transformation since the American Revolution”.
She also expressly mentioned the United States as a country that is also making this green shift. Ottawa has expressed in the past the desire to respond to theInflation Reduction Act of the Biden government, a law passed last summer that provides some 370 billion US dollars (more than 500 billion Canadian dollars) to give a boost to different green industries, such as electric cars.
The American president, Joe Biden, will also be in Ottawa on Thursday and Friday, a few days before the tabling of the federal budget.
In health, the budget is expected to reflect the recent agreement reached with the provinces. In February, Ottawa proposed to increase its transfers by $46.2 billion over ten years, to reach a total of $196 billion. Since then, the federal government has also announced that it intends to cut $41.87 million from its Canada Health Transfer (TCS) to Quebec, the estimated cost of care that the system bills directly to patients.
Continue the agreement with the NDP
Minister Freeland spoke at length about the Canadian economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic and the various aid programs put in place by the Liberal government. For example, she estimated on Monday that the dental care of 200,000 children was covered by a new federal benefit in force since December.
This benefit was one of 27 commitments included in the agreement between the Liberal Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party (NDP). However, several other elements of this agreement should in theory see the light of day in 2023.
The federal government is expected to expand its dental benefit for less fortunate families to include teenagers, the elderly and people with disabilities. Ottawa must also take certain embryonic steps towards a federal drug insurance policy.
The Trudeau government has also committed to writing a charter of rights for real estate buyers and listing properties in a public registry, among other things. It must also create a training center for clean jobs.
Several officials from the minority Liberal government and the NDP have recently told the Duty that both parties are still satisfied with the 2022 agreement, which is unique in federal political history. Canada’s next budget should therefore unsurprisingly be approved by Parliament.