On Tuesday March 28, Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, tabled our 2023 budget in the House of Commons. 2023 Federal Budget outlines the next steps in our government’s plan to build a stronger and more resilient economy for everyone.
The 2023 federal budget is proposing spending to make life more affordable, encourage investments in green energy, provide improved health-care services and roll out the next stage of the federal dental care program. It also offers targeted funding for students, workers, science and defence.
What you need to know:
Here is a list of some of the more significant funding initiatives in Budget 2023.
$43B in net new spending over six years.
3 main priorities: health care/dental, affordability and clean economy.
Doubling of GST rebate extended for lower income Canadians, up to $467 for a family.
$13B over five years to implement dental care plan for families earning less than $90K.
$20B over six years for tax credits to promote investment in green technologies.
$4B over five years for an Indigenous housing strategy.
$359 million over five years for programs addressing the opioid crisis.
$158 million over three years for a suicide prevention hotline, launching Nov. 30.
Creation of new agency to combat foreign interference.
Deficit for 2022-23 expected to be $43B, higher than projected in the fall.
Higher than expected deficits projected for next 5 years.
Federal debt hits $1.18 trillion. Debt-to-GDP ratio will rise slightly over next 2 years.
Canada’s economy has made a remarkable recovery from the COVID recession. Today there are more Canadians with good jobs than ever before. Inflation has fallen for eight months in a row, and it was down to 5.2 per cent in February. The Bank of Canada predicts it will drop to just 2.6 per cent by the end of this year. But we all know that our most vulnerable friends and neighbours are still feeling the bite of higher prices.
Today’s federal Budget announced an investment of $49.5 million over five years for the Security Infrastructure Program, a critical tool in protecting our community institutions like Mosques, Mandir’s, Gurdwara’s and community centres, among others. New funding will go towards expanding and enhancing the program so it can be more responsive to the evolving security needs of communities, which responds to feedback directly shared by many of you. This enhanced program will be launched later this year as part of Canada’s new Action Plan to Combat Hate.
This new funding represents the largest investment in the program ever made by a Canadian government, doubling the program’s funding this year, and tripling it for the following four years. I look forward to working with you on realizing the benefits of this investment directly in local communities.
This investment is the result of the tireless advocacy made by Liberal MPs, in particular our South Asian and Muslim MPs. More importantly, this would not have been possible without the input of community leaders like you.
In the 2023 Federal Budget, we also announced that to strengthen Canada’s universal public health care system, our government will deliver $198.3 billion to reduce backlogs, expand access to family health services and ensure provinces and territories can provide the high quality and timely health care Canadians expect and deserve. This includes $46.2 billion in new funding to provinces and territories through new Canada Health Transfer measures, as well as tailored bilateral agreements to meet the needs of each province and territory, personal support worker wage support, and a Territorial Health Investment Fund.
