“We have never seen a government that has spent so much and done so little for Canadians.”
That’s from Cariboo-Prince George and Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies Conservative MP’s Todd Doherty and Bob Zimmer as it pertains to the 2024 federal budget.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced the deficit is projected to go to $39.8 billion for fiscal 2024-25.
Doherty told Vista Radio it was good to see 500 million dollars earmarked for a new youth mental health fund, however, he remains skeptical the Liberals will follow through.
“I see they have announced some funding for youth mental health, a significant amount of money but I also bring it to the last election where they promised a 4.5 billion dollar mental health transfer, which never materialized.”
“We have seen that over the last nine years. We have seen these fantastic photo-op announcements and then here we sit nine years later and they haven’t followed through with many of them. We have never seen a government that has spent so much and done so little for Canadians.”
Meanwhile, Zimmer was displeased with the lack of money invested into infrastructure, especially in his riding.
“We are looking for a Peace River Bridge. We know it in the North Peace as the Taylor Bridge and there is nothing in there for that infrastructure project that we have been waiting for – it seems for decades. There was nothing for forestry, nothing new for the ice breakers and we have seen a lot of promises regarding defence.”
“Hot air isn’t going to the get the job done – we need the infrastructure built and again it is just more promises.”
Much of the budget was already announced by Freeland and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the past few weeks including $53 billion in new spending over five years.
According to the budget, the federal deficit is projected to be $39.8 billion in 2024-25, $38.9 billion in 2025-26, and declining over the three years following, to $20 billion by 2028-29.
The most significant portion from today’s (Tuesday) budget is a new revenue stream: an increase in taxes on capital gains for Canada’s highest earners.
This is projected to rake in over $19 billion over the next five years.
Housing was the biggest focus of the 2024-25 budget by Ottawa.
The Liberals are promising to build 3.9 million homes by 2031.
The current strategy includes several measures as well as $8.5 billion in additional spending for more housing construction.
This includes a $15-billion top-up to the Apartment Construction Loan Program; $6 billion for a Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund; as well as $1 billion in loans and $470 million in contributions for a new rental protection fund.
In addition, the federal budget sees a $400 million to top up the Housing Accelerator Fund, plus $600 million for new homebuilding innovation efforts to try and scale up modular and prefabricated units.
A link to the full budget can be found here.