Though the 2024 federal budget was titled 鈥淔airness for Every Generation,鈥� North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney feels that 鈥渋t was a lot of stuff on the surface, without really understanding the issues.鈥�
On April 16, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland presented the federal government鈥檚 2024 budget in a speech that covered the highlights of the 430-page document. The budget aims at helping younger generations of Canadians, who Freeland wrote in her forward to the document are feeling the chance to build a good life slip away.
鈥淎 fair chance to build a good middle class life鈥攖o do as well as your parents, or better鈥攖hat鈥檚 the promise of Canada. For too many, especially for younger Canadians, that promise is at risk,鈥� the document says.
However, Blaney said during an interview that 鈥渋t feels like they they don鈥檛 quite have a vision that will really benefit Millennials and Generation Z in the way that that needs to be addressed.鈥�
The budget specifically looked at three main issues: affordable homes, lowering everyday costs, and growing the economy.
One of the government鈥檚 key ideas was the renter鈥檚 bill of rights, proposed at the end of March. The budget gives provisions to implement measures from that, including protections against unfair practices, simplifying leases and requiring landlords to disclose previous rent prices. The Liberals have also proposed giving renters the chance to use their on-time rent payments to build their credit score.
鈥淩ents are so expensive that people are struggling to even pay the rent and living in really precarious situations,鈥� Blaney said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not affordable enough. If you鈥檙e paying rent that is often higher than you would have to pay even in a mortgage, how do you find the money to save to buy a house?鈥�
Blaney said that there were some 鈥渋nteresting ideas鈥� around housing, including opening up National Defense land for military and civilian housing projects, as well as using Canada Post buildings to provide more housing. The budget also puts more money into the Housing Accelerator Fund.
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鈥淭he challenge, of course is it鈥檚 for communities of 10,000 and bigger,鈥� Blaney said. 鈥� So you鈥檝e got smaller communities like ours and many that I represent in the riding going against big cities like Burnaby and Vancouver (for funding.) I know that a lot of small communities are very concerned about that.鈥�
On everyday affordability, the budget document highlights their work on $10-a-day childcare, a plan which was introduced in 2021, as well as the new dental care and pharmacare programs, pushed through as part of the Confidence and Supply agreement with the NDP, as well as investments into communities. Freeland unveiled the plan to give over $2.5 billion back to small businesses under the Canada Carbon Rebate program.
Growing the economy was the third major tenet of the Liberal budget, with Freeland saying 鈥渨e 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.鈥�
Part of that is investing in technologies like AI and electric vehicles. In the days leading up to April 16, the government announced a commitment to Artificial Intelligence computing, to the tune of $2.4 billion.
Blaney acknowledged the need to stay competitive in the Artificial Intelligence market, but said she was worried about AI threatening jobs.
鈥淲hen I think about this area of AI, I think we also need to be thinking about workforce development,鈥� Blaney said. 鈥淭here are jobs that are under threat because AI is developing. We need to also think that happy, healthy communities are correlated strongly with work. As AI changes, we need to be looking at that, and I don鈥檛 think they鈥檙e at that place yet.鈥�
Before the budget was announced, it was speculated that the government would increase taxes for the wealthiest Canadians, and Blaney and the NDP hoped that would include a windfall tax on the high profits seen by oil and gas, and grocery companies.
The budget did include an tax increase for the wealthy in the form of a bump in the capital gains tax. That means that for the first $250,000 in capital gains, half of the profits will be taxed. For anything over that $250,000 threshold, two thirds of the profits will be taxed. This will only be applicable to 0.13 per cent of Canadians. Freeland said that the decision to go with a capital gains tax is to attract investment from outside of Canada.
鈥淲e鈥檙e in a situation in Canada where people are so desperate, and at the same time we鈥檙e seeing a lot of CEOs bringing home substantial amounts of money,鈥� Blaney said. 鈥淭his is not a budget that is going to limit the accumulation of wealth for the very wealthy 鈥� If we鈥檙e not holding the people who are making all of that money accountable, then we鈥檙e never going to see fairness 鈥� what we鈥檝e seen across this country and unfortunately across a lot of the planet is the separation between the ultra-wealthy and every-day people 鈥� we have to question a system that does that that is allowing ultra-rich people to keep accumulating all of this well and the people who are working for them are paying way more than their fair share.鈥�
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