Canada’s 2024 Federal Budget addresses some key concerns Canadians and newcomers face, such as affordable housing, matching immigration numbers with Canada’s housing capacity, tackling inflation, and improving the Foreign Credential Recognition Program.
“A fair chance to build a good middle-class life—to do as well as your parents, or better—that’s the promise of Canada. For too many, especially for younger Canadians, that promise is at risk,” said the deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, in her foreword to the budget.
“We have a plan to fix that. We plan to build a Canada that works better for you, where you can get ahead, where your hard work pays off, where you can buy a home—where you have a fair chance at a good middle-class life.”
Termed Fairness for Every Generation, the budget outlines Ottawa’s spending and priorities for the upcoming fiscal year, in healthcare, infrastructure, education, and social economy.
The key areas of focus for this year’s budget are:
1. Building More Affordable Homes
According to Freeland, the best way to make home prices more affordable is to rapidly increase supply. Budget 2024 and Canada’s Housing Plan laid out the government’s strategy to unlock 3.87 million new homes by 2031, which includes a minimum of 2 million net new homes on top of the 1.87 million homes expected to be built anyway by 2031.
Of the 2 million net new homes, the Budget estimated that the policy actions taken in Budget 2024, Canada’s Housing Plan, and in fall 2023 would support a minimum of 1.2 million net new homes.To achieve this aim, the government will work with every order of government, for profit and non-profit homebuilders, Indigenous communities, and with “every partner necessary to build the homes needed for Team Canada to restore fairness for every generation.”
The Budget reiterated the vitality of the immigration policy working in tandem with housing policy by highlighting Canada’s recent announcement to reduce temporary residents by 600,000 compared to current levels. This, according to the Budget, is critical to creating conditions that are favourable to lower interest rates, lower housing demand, and restoring housing affordability.
Ottawa also announced that it is cutting red tape and reforming zoning, while simultaneously constructing more apartments and affordable housing across the country and unlocking public lands and vacant government offices to build homes for Canadians.
For Millennial and Gen Z renters, the government is trying to restore the chance to make progress towards homeownership, for which it is creating more tax-free ways to save for one’s first down payment.
2. Reducing Life Costs
“The global rise in the cost of living has left people here in Canada struggling to keep up with the bills. While inflation has come down significantly, the government is taking action to lower everyday costs for Canadians and hold corporations to account,” read the Budget.
“Too many Canadians today are feeling like their hard work isn’t paying off; that they can’t get ahead. No matter how hard you save or how much more you work, your paycheques aren’t going as far as costs go up, and saving enough to go after your dreams seems out of reach. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
“Whether enabling young people to save more of their money for an education or first home, or helping families to make ends meet, the government is fighting to help Canadians keep more of their money.”
The Budget touched on affordable groceries through the National School Food Program, which will ensure that more than 400,000 children have access to nutritious meals.
The government is also tackling shrinkflation and dequalification, including through the Office of Consumer Affairs, which has launched research projects to investigate and reveal price inflation and harmful business practices that reduce the quantity and quality of groceries.
To end food insecurity, Budget 2024 proposed to provide $62.9 million over three years, starting in 2024-25, to renew and expand the Local Food Infrastructure Fund to support community organizations across Canada to invest in local food infrastructure. Priority for this will be given to Indigenous and Black communities, along with other equity-deserving groups.
Cheaper internet, home phone, and cell phone plans were also mentioned in the Budget. For example, the government committed over $3.7 billion to more than 600 projects to help bring high-speed internet (50 Mbps download/10 Mbps upload) to over 1 million rural and remote households across Canada, including 35,000 Indigenous households.Other areas of concern were a right to repair devices and lower banking fees.
Growing The Economy In A Way That Is Shared By All
Freeland said that Ottawa will have a plan that will increase investment, enhance productivity, and encourage the kind of game-changing innovation that will create good-paying and meaningful jobs and keep Canada at the economic forefront.
Ottawa is making investments to ensure every generation of workers has the right skills, which will help the country attract private investment to grow the economy. Ottawa is delivering, on a priority basis, its $93 billion suite of major economic investment tax credits to drive growth, secure the future of Canadian businesses in Canada, and create good jobs for generations to come.
The economy is adding new, high-paying jobs, in high-growth sectors, like clean tech, clean electricity, and scientific research and development. For example, a key ongoing action in this regard has been the investment of nearly $2 billion to fuel Canada’s Global Innovation Clusters to grow these innovation ecosystems, promote commercialization, support intellectual property creation and retention, and scale Canadian businesses.
The Budget is also focussing on tax fairness by asking the country’s wealthiest to pay their fair share that goes towards a $21.9 billion investment in the “prosperity for every generation.”
