Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre says this is the ninth deficit budget Canada has seen since the Prime Minister promised the budget would balance itself.
He says everything Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has spent money on has become more expensive for Canadians. “He’s doubled the rent, doubled mortgage payments, doubled the need for a downpayment on a home, forced 35 homeless encampments in Halifax alone. One in four kids cannot afford food, and now, he’s adding $40 billion in new debt and new spending. That’s $2,400 of new inflation,” Poilievre stated.
Poilievre compares Trudeau to a pyromaniac spraying gas on the inflationary fire that he lit, which is why the conservatives will vote against the federal budget announced today.
CFIB Reacts
The Canadian Federation of Independant Business is pleased to see that small and medium sized businesses will be receiving $2.5 billion in carbon tax rebates that were promised back in 2019. Previous to the budget reveal, the CFIB had called for this measure to be implemented as a form of relief for small firms feeling the pinch.
Dan Kelly, CFIB president, says the big surprise for small business in the budget was a series of changes to capital gains taxation. The budget proposes to increase the taxable portion of capital gains above $250,000 from half to two-thirds. They say this will only affect 0.1% of Canadians, and simultaneously raise $20 billion in revenue over the next five years.
Kelly says what worries him “the most about the capital gains changes is the potential to demotivate Canadians from getting into business in the first place or working hard to grow a small business to a medium-sized business.”
Canadian Taxpayers Federation Reacts
The Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says the federal government could win the lottery every day and it would still max out its credit card.
Franco Terrazzano and the CTF are denouncing the federal government for hiking taxes, increasing spending and allowing debt interest charges to take up $54 billion of the 2024-25 budget.
Terrazzano says debt interest charges are costing taxpayers more than a billion dollars every week. He adds that large deficits mean interest charges will cost taxpayers more than the federal governement will send to the provinces in health transfers this year.
Terrazzano says the debt will total more than $1.2 trillion this year, and when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first took power, the debt was $616 billion, just over half the amount it is now.
Saskatoon & Region Homebuilders’ Association Reacts
The Saskatoon & Region Home Builders’ Association applauds the federal government’s Federal Housing Plan, which is part of the federal budget. The SRHBA says it aims to tackle the longstanding challenges of housing affordability and supply, which the Canadian Home Builders Association has advocated for at federal, provincial and municipal levels.
CEO of the SRHBA, Nicole Burgess, points to the introduction of 30-year amortization periods for insured mortgages for first-time buyers, which she believes will make home ownership more accessible for younger Canadians and newcomers, which will then stimulate a surge in housing construction.
The plan also includes federal investments in infrastructure and public transit which is directly linked to housing outputs, and Burgess and a streamlined approval process through the Housing Accelerator Fund, which Burgess believes will help to control rising construction costs. She notes that the federal government has committed $50 million to the Home Building Technology Innovation Fund to boost productivity and innovation in home construction, particularly for modular and prefabricated homes.
Burgess says the SRHBA is committed to working with all levels of government to ensure the successful implementation of these measures to help more Canadians unlock the door to home ownership.
