Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland (Photo: The Canadian Press)
The 2024 federal budget will not be officially presented until Tuesday afternoon in the House of Commons, but in recent weeks, the Trudeau government has unveiled its main outlines as part of a pre-budget tour.
Here is a summary of what has already been announced for the next budget.
Accommodation
Last Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his government’s plan to combat the housing crisis. This provides for the construction of nearly 3.9 million housing units by 2031.
The plan builds on a series of announcements made in recent months, promising billions of dollars in low-cost loans, infrastructure spending and support for the homeless.
Ottawa promises in particular to:
— increase the depreciation deduction rate for apartments from 4% to 10%, which will increase the amount that builders can deduct from their taxes;
— extend the mortgage amortization period to 30 years for first-time home buyers purchasing a new home;
— make more public land available for housing construction, while leasing the land to developers rather than selling it.
Defense
The Liberal government plans to increase military spending to 1.76% of GDP by 2030.
This involves setting aside an additional $8.1 billion for this area over the next five years and spending $73 billion by 2044.
Artificial intelligence
In its next budget, Ottawa will set aside $2.4 billion to strengthen Canada’s capabilities in artificial intelligence.
The majority of this sum, $2 billion, will go into a fund that will aim to develop technological infrastructure and computing capabilities, as well as make them available to researchers and businesses.
School food program
Ottawa will propose $1 billion over five years to establish a national school feeding program, with the aim of providing meals to an additional 400,000 children.
Youth Mental Health Fund
The government has committed to creating a $500 million fund to help community health organizations provide more mental health care to young people.
Daycare Loans
The government plans to provide more than $1 billion in low-cost loans, grants and student loan forgiveness to expand child care provision across Canada.
Tax credit for firefighters
The federal budget to be presented Tuesday will double the tax credit for volunteer firefighters and that dedicated to search and rescue volunteers.
The government maintains that the tax credit will increase from $3,000 to $6,000 and will allow volunteer firefighters to save up to $900 per year.
