Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s third budget, tabled Feb. 27, includes $21.5 billion in new spending over six years, and projects a deficit of $18.1 billion in the 2018-19 fiscal year, dropping to $12.3 billion for 2022-23.
“We are tackling the challenge of equality head-on, asking tough questions, and beginning to provide solutions,” said Morneau of a budget that highlights many of the same areas B.C. Finance Minister Carole James included in her recent budget. “We will continue to double down on our plan to invest in the middle class and everyone working hard to join it.”
West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky MP Pam Goldsmith-Jones predicts constituents will respond well to the budget and “see a lot of their own advocacy in it.”
“The budget puts women at the centre of Canada’s economic future, because we think it’s the only way the economy can reach its full potential,” she said.
Some of the budget highlights include:
Five weeks of extra leave for two-parent families under the EI Parental Sharing Benefit.
A promise to introduce legislation on federal pay equity this year.
$172.6 million in additional money over three years for clean drinking water on First Nation reserves.
$1.4 billion over six years in new funding for First Nations Child and Family Services.
$1.3 billion over five years for conservation, including protection of species at risk.
$50 million in funding over five years to support local journalism.
$231 million over five years to address the opioid crisis.
$1.25 billion more over the next three years for low-interest loans to builders of rental housing on top of the money announced last year for the National Housing Strategy.
Goldsmith-Jones said the support for rental housing construction is one of the programs that will make a difference on the Sunshine Coast. “I think that’s going to be very relevant for the Coast and I’m really looking forward to working with the community to identify projects.”
She also said issues around drinking water supplies in Indigenous communities has been one of the concerns she hears frequently. “There’s money there, and we are deeply committed to having absolutely no boil-water advisories on reserves within a few years.”
The budget sets up an advisory council to help set up a national pharmacare program, but doesn’t include funding or a firm timeline. Goldsmith-Jones said she expects the council to finish its work within a year.
Carole James said that’s one of the initiatives the B.C. government was hoping the federal government would move faster on.
She also said she wants more specifics on funding for transportation infrastructure, especially for projects on the Lower Mainland.
Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh also called for the Trudeau government to move faster on pharmacare.
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, meanwhile, called the deficits “irresponsible” and accused Prime Minister Trudeau of “failing once again to match his big promises with action.”
Elizabeth May of the Greens expressed disappointment that the budget “does not touch subsidies to fossil fuels in the oil patch and for fracked natural gas.”
