Top news
- The federal budget will be tabled by Finance Minister Freeland at 4 PM next Tuesday, April 16th. In the leadup of the budget, the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers have been making announcements about some of the items that will be included in the budget. This week Minister Freeland refused to rule out the possibility that the budget will include tax hikes on the wealthy or corporations.
- As part of the pre-budget today the Prime Minister today announced Canada’s Housing Plan, the government’s housing action plan outlining the government’s new comprehensive plan to build 3.9 million homes by 2031. Along with the various elements announced over the last several months the plan also includes additional measures announced today including more than $1 billion to help end homelessness, an extension of the GST exemption on building supplies to student housing built by universities and colleges, an increase to the capital cost allowance for apartment construction, making more federal land available to housing, and putting restrictions on large corporations buying single family homes.
- The Foreign Interference Commission concluded the first phase of hearings this week by recalling CSIS Director David Vigneault to appear today and answer follow-up questions after the testimony of senior political staff, cabinet ministers, and the Prime Minister earlier this week. The first report by the Commissioner of her findings on the first phase of the inquiry is due by May 3.
- This afternoon the House of Commons concluded another marathon voting session as the House approved Bill C-50: The Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act at Report Stage. The Conservatives filed more than 200 amendments to this legislation that they strongly oppose which meant the House had to take take dozens of votes on the bill starting Thursday evening. The government invoked a new provision to the Standing Orders to avoid MPs having to vote continuously which allowed MPs to break last evening and return to voting this morning.
Government announcements
- Prime Minister Trudeau and Defence Minister Blair announced the release of a defence policy update “Our North, Strong and Free”. The plan includes a commitment to increase defence spending by $8.1 billion in the next five years and $73 billion over the next 20 years. This would include investments in tactical helicopters and supporting the creation of new artillery ammunition production capacity in Canada.
- Minister Freeland announced a number of changes to Canada’s mortgage rules will be part of Budget 2024. These include allowing first-time homebuyers purchasing a new home to amortize their mortgage over 30 years rather than the current 25-year limit, enhancing the Canada Mortgage Charter to provide existing homeowners with permanent amortization relief when appropriate, and increasing the Home Buyers’ Plan limit to allow Canadians to withdraw up to $60,000 from their RRSPs for the purposes of a down payment up from the current $35,000 limit.
- Prime Minister Trudeau announced the government is committing $2.5 billion to support researchers and businesses working on AI in Canada. This includes $2 billion to build and allow access to computing capabilities and technological infrastructure and $100 million to support small and medium businesses in deploying AI.
- The government announced the upcoming budget will include a $500 million Youth Mental Health Fund. The funding will be available to community groups who help youth access mental health services.
- The first call for proposals for the Employment Assistance Services (EAS) stream under the Enabling Fund for Official Language Minority Communities (EF-OLMC) has been opened. The has $231 million in funding available to support organizations that help French or English speakers in gaining employments in regions where they are a minority.
In the House of Parliament
- Bill C-347: This PMB to remove the requirement that MPs swear an oath of allegiance to the King of Canada was defeated at 2nd reading in the House of Commons.
- A Conservative motion calling on the Prime Minister to hold a meeting with the Premiers to discuss the replacement of the carbon tax was approved by the House of Commons with the NDP and the BQ joining with the Conservatives to pass the motion over the objections of the Liberals.
- MPs approved a motion invoking a rarely used procedure to call ArriveCan contractor Kristian Firth to appear “at the bar” of House of Commons and answer MPs questions after it found he was in contempt of Parliament over his appearances at the OGGO committee. He will be required to attend the House’s sitting on April 17th and face questions from the full House of Commons regarding his involvement in the ArriveCan controversy.
- The newly elected MP for Durham Jamil Javani was sworn in as a Member of Parliament and took his seat in the House on Monday. There are still 3 vacancies in the House following the resignations of Liberal MPs Carolyn Bennett and David Lametti and NDP MP Daniel Baikie
Economic numbers of the week
- 5%: The Bank of Canada announced it is maintaining its interest rate target at 5%.
Coming Up
- 5%: The Bank of Canada announced it is maintaining its interest rate target at 5%.
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