There will be no major wall-to-wall measures to counter the effect of inflation in the federal budget which will be tabled next Tuesday.
Passing through Quebec on Wednesday, the Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, clearly indicated that her budget will offer targeted assistance to the less fortunate to counter the effects of inflation.
Avoiding criticism of the Legault government, which offered large-scale tax cuts in its budget tabled on Tuesday, Ms. Freeland simply added that her government’s spending capacity is not infinite and that opening the pockets government at this time would only add fuel to the flames of inflation.
She did, however, suggest that housing and workforce training would be among the winners of the 2023-2024 federal budget.
Also, the Trudeau government still plans to dip into the public treasury in order to make “significant” investments in the green economy, according to the words of the Deputy Prime Minister. Canada cannot afford, she says, to stay on the sidelines of the economic transformation that climate change demands. Ms. Freeland argues that the emerging energy transition will have an impact as significant as the industrial revolution.
