March 30, 2023 Budget 2023

March 30, 2023 news-nouvelles

Dear Neighbour,

Happy spring! After what seemed like a very long, dark winter, it feels like spring has finally arrived, and with it, the hope of new beginnings, fresh starts, and better days ahead.

This week Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, released Budget 2023. The budget reflects many of the issues that you have raised with me in our conversations and correspondence. The focus is on affordability, health care, and building green economy that protects our environment and creates good paying jobs.

The budget builds on the progress we’ve made to date:

We led the G7 in economic growth last year and are set to maintain the lowest deficit and the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7
Women’s participation in the workforce has increased to historic levels (85.7%!!) since we introduced affordable early learning and childcare
Lifted 138 long-term drinking water advisories and prevented 244 short-term drinking water advisories from becoming long-term on public systems on First Nations reserves as of February 3, 2023, and plans are in place to lift the remaining 32, through investments of more than $5.7 billion since 2015

I wanted to highlight a few items that I thought might be of particular interest to you:

Canadian Dental Care Plan will begin to roll out in 2023 and provide dental coverage for uninsured Canadians with annual family income of less than $90,000;
Federal Health Plan will improve public health care, reducing backlogs, expanding access to family health services, and modernizing the health care system. Ontario’s share is $76.8 billion over 10 years, of which $15.9 billion is new funding;
Grocery Rebate providing some relief from high food costs to about 11 million Canadians, of up to $467 for a family of 4, and $234 for individual households;
Cap on alcohol excise tax at 2% (instead of 6.3%) for one year effective April 1, 2023;
Lowering credit card transaction fees by up to 27% for small businesses;
Clean Investment Tax Credits for investing in a clean economy and helping build the net-zero industries of tomorrow (Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit, Clean Hydrogen Investment Tax Credit, Clean Technology Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit, Enhancing the Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Investment Tax Credit, Expanding Eligibility for the Clean Technology Investment Tax Credit);
Increasing Canada Student Grants by 40% to provide up to $4,200 for full-time students, raising the interest-free Canada Student Loan limit from $210 to $300 per week of study, and waiving the credit screening requirement for mature students to qualify for federal student grants and loans, allowing post-secondary students to access up to $14,400 in enhanced Canada Student Financial Assistance for the upcoming school year;
Predatory lending crackdown, changing the Criminal Code to lower the high interest loans to 35% APR, and adjusting the Criminal Code’s payday lending exemption to require payday lenders to charge no more than $14 per $100 borrowed;
File My Return expansion to two million people by 2025, almost triple the current number. Starting next year, the CRA will pilot a new automatic filing service that will help vulnerable Canadians who do not currently file their taxes receive the benefits to which they are entitled;
988 Suicide Prevention Line as of November 30, 2023, Canadians will be able to call or text 988 at any time to access quality, effective, and immediate suicide prevention and mental health crisis support; and
ParticipACTION Let’s Get Moving Initiative received $10 million over 2 years to support national programming aimed at increasing daily physical activity among Canadians.

If you’d like to find out more, please read Budget 2023 and, as always, you can call or email my office. My staff and I are always happy to answer your questions.