The minority Liberal government will unveil their first budget since March 2019 on April 19th.
The last time they delivered an update on the country’s finances was in March of 2019 when the deficit was pegged at $984 billion, equal to 4.6% of gross domestic product.
The framework is also expected to provide full accounting of all spending through the pandemic, as well as outline the plan to spend as much as $100 billion in future years to help the economy recover.
The parliamentary budget officer reported in March that the portion of spending related to COVID-19 is set to drop to $22.7 billion, which is equal to a nose dive of $136.8 billion or 86% in the coming fiscal year compared to 2020-21.
The report goes onto say that estimates indicate in 2020-21 $122 billion flowed to Canadians through labour market supports such as the emergency response benefit, the recovery benefit and enhanced employment insurance.
The comparable figure for 2021-22 is less than $43 billion.
Northwestern Ontario Focus
Local officials had a few common themes when it comes to what they want the federal Liberals to include in the budget.
“Infrastructure funds in general,” said Mayor Bill Mauro. “We made the pitch for federal transportation funding money to support the Alstom Bombardier plant in Thunder Bay. I’d also like to see continued relief for coronavirus pressures that the municipalities may be experiencing in 2021.”
Shuniah Mayor Wendy Landry agrees with Mayor Mauro for municipality support: “To allow our community the opportunity to continue to keep our roadways strong and our infrastructure strong. More financial assistance with programs like FedNor would be great as well.”
Thunder Bay-Superior North MP and Minister of Health Patty Hajdu has been pushing her caucus to invest in affordable housing.
“This is something that drove me into politics, and now more than ever, we’ve seen that investing in this pays off down the road,” Hajdu exclaimed. “I also believe that FedNor has been a driver of investment in businesses as well as the start-up, continued growth and ongoing maintenance of businesses.
Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland is set to deliver the budget in the House of Commons after 4:00 p.m.
