April 11, 2022 Budget update

Dear Neighbour,

Last week, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, tabled Budget 2022. You can read all about it here. Budget 2022 invests in three main things — people, economic growth, and a clean future.

Through these targeted investments our government will help make life more affordable, create jobs and build a stronger economic future for all Canadians.

I would like to bring attention to some parts of the budget that I am most excited about pertaining to Housing, a National School Food Program, Zero Emissions Vehicles and investing in Canada’s security.

Housing

Over the past years federal investments have helped to build affordable housing for seniors in our community, homes for people experiencing homelessness, and to keep our co-ops with extensions to their agreements. But we need to do more as housing affordability continues to be an issue in our city. There isn’t one simple solution, but Budget 2022 will put in place new measures towards housing affordability in our country, including:

The Housing Accelerator Fund: This fund creates supports for our cities to speed up housing development with a focus on increasing supply but ensuring it includes an increase in affordable housing. The target is to create 100,000 net new housing units over the next five years.

Home Buyers’ Bill of Rights: Working with the provinces and territories to develop and implement a bill of rights that will include a national plan to end blind bidding.

A Ban on Foreign Investment in Canadian Housing: Building on the tax that we have placed on foreign-owned vacant properties, we will prohibit foreign commercial enterprises and people who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents from buying residential property in Canada for two years.

Making Property Flippers Pay Their Fair Share: Introducing rules so that any person who sells a property they held for less than 12 months will be subject to profits as business income, with exemptions for people who must sell their homes due to certain life circumstances.

Investing in Co-Operative Housing Development: We have many strong co-ops in our community. With this budget our government is making the largest investment in building new co-ops in more than 30 years, with an estimated 6,000 units to be constructed.

Tax-Free Home Savings Account: An account that would give prospective first-time home buyers the ability to save up to $40,000 with contributions and withdrawals to purchase a new home being non-taxable.

National School Food Policy

I worked with community members and national organizations to include a national school food program as part of our country’s first ever National Food Policy in 2019. This year’s budget includes the commitment to work with provinces, territories, municipalities, Indigenous partners, and stakeholders to develop a National School Food Policy. It is one more step to making school food a reality.

Zero Emission Vehicles

Transportation is a large part of our country’s emissions. As part of our Emissions Reduction Plan we are mandating that 20% of all new cars sold by 2026 are zero emission, increasing to 100% of new vehicle sales by 2035. While ownership over the long term of a zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) is cheaper than a fuel car, it currently can be more expensive to buy. That’s why we established the Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles (iZEV), which offers up to $5,000 for purchase of eligible zero-emissions vehicles. Budget 2022 is extending this iZEV until March 2025 and expanding the program to support the purchase of more vehicle models.

Investing in Canada’s Security

The recent invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s regime highlights the need to be prepared to protect our sovereignty, and those of our allies.

Canada stands with our allies in condemnation of the brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s regime. In response to this invasion our actions have included:

• lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine
• humanitarian assistance to provide health services, protection, shelter, water and food,
• the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel for people fleeing the invasion, which includes settlement services such as language training, short term income supports and temporary hotel accommodations.
• sanctions on Putin, his inner circle, and key figures who have played a role in the invasion,
• preventing Canadian financial institutions from engaging in any transactions with the Russian Central Bank,
• Sending a team of RCMP officers to support the International Criminal Court in its investigation of war crimes in Ukraine,
• Ban on new export permits and cancelled existing export permits, including banning all imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products from Russia,
• Closed Canadian airspace and waterways to all Russian-owned air and watercrafts,

Budget 2022 enhances support already committed to Ukraine and increases our contributions to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This additional investment will ensure that we uphold NATO as the collective apparatus working to protect us and our western allies.

At home, Budget 2022 builds on our crucial investments to protect North America, and in particular the far North. We are committed to maintaining existing Arctic defence capabilities, and will continue to modernize North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in collaboration with the United States. NORAD plays an important role in our protection by proving surveillance and control of Canadian aerospace and preserving maritime sovereignty.

These are just some highlights of the new budget. Please let me know your comments and thoughts on Budget 2022, thank you.

Yours truly,

Julie

Julie Dabrusin

MP for Toronto—Danforth