The Federal Government released yesterday its Budget 2024 – Fairness for Every Generation; here’s a snapshot of some commitments by the government that will impact our West Nova Chamber business community. 

The 2024 budget came with bigger spending and federal loans (approximately $52.9 billion) than previous years, costed through the support of higher taxes on corporations and an estimated 0.13% of the population. The biggest Federal spending and planning is in housing and healthcare.

Healthcare

1. The budget allows people aged 18-64 with disabilities $200 a month directly through the Canada Disability Benefit Act of 2023; the budget allots $6.1 billion towards the plan over the next 6 years. The payments are expected to begin July 2025.
2. The budget offers $500 million over five years towards the creation of a new Youth Mental Health Fund to help younger Canadians access mental health care.
3. In an effort to expand access to healthcare, there are amendments to the Canada Student Financial Assistance Act and theCanada Student Loans Act to expand the Canada Student Loan Forgiveness Program to more health care and social services workers in rural and remote communities.
4. $1.5 billion over five years to Health Canada to launch of the National Pharmacare Plan.
5. $77.1 million is budgeted over four years, to help integrate internationally educated health care professionals into Canada’s workforce by creating more training positions, increasing assessment capacity and helping navigate credential recognition systems.
6. The Budget also announced a new Safe Long Term Care Act, aimed at improving care standards across the country.
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Housing

1. The Federal government’s plan to create more housing (3.87 million by 2031) stands on a few key commitments:
   1. $1.1 billion is to be invested over the next ten years to convert federal offices into homes. The commitment is to convert 50 per cent of the federal office portfolio into housing, including Canada Post offices and National Defense properties.
   2. $15 billion top-up to the Apartment Construction Loan Program, which commits to build 30,000 new homes.
   3. The government also affirms its plan to waive GST on new student housing.
   4. The budget also mentions plans to consult on taxing vacant lands that are residentially zoned, to encourage the building of more homes.
2. The Canada Student Financial Assistance Program will consider housing costs to assess the financial needs of students, which the government projects will provide $154.6 million of aid to about 79,000 students.
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4. To empower homebuyers, the budget also proposes a 30-year mortgage amortization for first time home buyers of new builds, to be available as early as August of this year.
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6. The Home Buyer’s Plan will also allow first time home buyers to draw $60k from their RRSP tax free, allowing them a larger downpayment.
7. Subject to Provincial support, the budget proposes a Canadian Renters’ Bill of Rights.
8. The budget also lays out the Government’s plan to set expectations with banks, financial institutions, credit bureaus and landlords to allow renters to earn credits for rental payments towards their mortgage applications.
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Economic Growth – Business, Innovation, and Skills Building

1. All the spending comes at a cost to the higher earners, as the budget aims to increase the capital gains tax to be applicable to 2/3 (up from 1/2) of earnings over $250,000.00 a year. The budget estimates this will impact less than 0.1% of the population, and 12% of Canadian corporations.
2. The lifetime capital gains exemption is increased from about $1 million to $1,25 million on the sale of farming and fishing properties.
3. $1.8 billion is budgeted over 5 years to support Canadian researchers, through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
4. The budget commits to return fuel charge proceeds from 2019 to 2024 fiscal years to about 600,000 businesses with less than 500 employees through the refundable tax credit.
5. $351.2 million is allotted for the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy to help create 90,000 youth job placements, and $207.6 million is also budgeted for the Student Work Placement Program.
6. The budget takes the first steps towards designing and implementing a clean electricity investment tax credit.
7. $2 billion is budgeted over 5 years to launch a new AI Compute Access Fund and Canadian AI Sovereign Compute Strategy towards development of Canadian-owned and located AI infrastructure.
8. $200 million is slated to boost AI start-ups and help bring new technologies to market.
9. The Government is making changes to the Canada Education Savings Act to extend the age from 20 to 30 years to retroactively claim the Canada Learning Bond, allowing more adults to benefit from government contributions.
10. To incentivize innovation, the budget also allows for expensing costs associated with certain patents, computer equipment, and software.
11. The budget also empowers the CRA to gather more information, all to improve tax collection.

Affordability

1. The Government reiterates its school food program, that they estimate will save participating families $800 annually.
2. It continues its goal to make childcare more affordable by investing $1 billion through the Child Care Expansion Loan Program aimed at increasing available spaces.
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4. The government also commits to working towards lowering internet and phone costs and making it easier to switch providers.
5. For seniors, the Government plans to increase CPP benefits by up to 50% and increase Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplements.