Next Tuesday, March 28 is the date chosen by Canada’s Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland, to table her government’s budget for 2023-2024.
The minister made the announcement in the House of Commons on Friday.
The upcoming document is billed as a plan “to make life more affordable, strengthen public health care, and create good, middle-class jobs in a clean, growing economy,” Ms. Freeland said in a message on social networks.
This budget also comes at a time when all political parties in Ottawa are putting forward their solutions to fight inflation.
The content of the next budget will therefore be known a few days after the visit of the President of the United States to Ottawa. Joe Biden will be in the country on March 23 and 24. He is due to discuss defense, climate and immigration issues with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The US President will address parliamentarians in the House of Commons and the Senate on Friday, March 24.
The last federal budget, in 2022, was touted as representing a “reasonable” approach to economic uncertainty. This first post-COVID budget included, in particular, amounts for dental care for children, as negotiated in the agreement with the New Democratic Party (NDP). He predicted no return to balanced budgets in Canada until at least 2027.
Under the deal, dental benefits are to be extended to under-18s, the elderly and people living with disabilities in 2023. Other measures on drug prices and access to housing are also expected this year. The NDP has pledged to support all votes on the budget.
In Quebec, the government led by the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) will table its own budget next Tuesday, March 21, in the National Assembly.
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