Today, Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance, the Honourable Mona Fortier, continued her cross-country virtual Budget 2021 tour by meeting with members of the Richmond, British Columbia community.
Her visit included a Richmond Chamber of Commerce speech with Parliamentary Secretary Terry Beech, an address to the ICONNBC Business Association with Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan, and she hosted a virtual meeting with seniors along with Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Carla Qualtrough.
Budget 2021 is an historic investment to address the specific wounds of the COVID-19 recession, put people first, create jobs, grow the middle class, set businesses on a track for long-term growth, and ensure that Canada's future will be healthier, more equitable, greener, and more prosperous.
The Government of Canada's top priority remains protecting Canadians' health and safety, particularly during this third, aggressive wave of the virus and its variants. Vaccine rollout is underway across Canada, with federal government support in every province and territory and Canada is on track to meet the commitment that every Canadian who wants to will be fully vaccinated by September. To date, more than 1,834,430 vaccine doses have been shipped to British Columbia. On March 25, 2021, the federal government tabled legislation in order to provide a one-time payment of up to $1 billion to the provinces and territories, on an equal per capita basis, to help administer vaccines as quickly as possible.
COVID-19 has been devastating for Canada's seniors. It is essential that we protect the health and well-being of seniors, and the personal support workers who care for them, through this difficult time and into the future. Budget 2021 proposes to provide $3 billion over five years to support provinces and territories in ensuring standards for long-term care are applied and permanent changes are made. And as announced in March 2021, the federal government is proposing to provide provinces and territories with $4 billion through a one-time top-up to the Canada Health Transfer.
The federal government is making these investments to shore up public health systems so that they can continue to provide world-class care to Canadians throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Quotes
"The best way to keep the economy strong is to keep Canadians healthy, and Budget 2021 is as much about jumpstarting our economy as it is about investing in measures that will increase the quality of life for our citizens - things like health care, child care, arts and culture, the environment and public infrastructure."
Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance, the Honourable Mona Fortier
Quick facts
-
Budget 2021 includes $101.4 billion over three years in proposed investments as part of the Government of Canada's growth plan that will create good jobs and support a resilient and inclusive recovery. Key measures include:
- Establishing a Canada-wide early learning and child care system, in partnership with provincial, territorial, and Indigenous partners, which will help all families access affordable, high-quality, and flexible child care no matter where they live, and no longer shoulder the burden of high child care costs. The budget proposes new investments totalling almost $30 billion over the next five years. Combined with previous investments, a minimum of $9.2 billion per year ongoing will be invested in child care, starting in 2025-26.
- Extending emergency supports to bridge Canadians and Canadian businesses through to recovery, including:
- Extending the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy and Lockdown Support until September 25, 2021.
- Extending the number of weeks available for important income support for Canadians such as the Canada Recovery Benefit and the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit.
- Enhancing Employment Insurance sickness benefits from 15 to 26 weeks.
- Increasing Old Age Security for seniors age 75 and older to provide them with better financial security.
- Supporting women, Black Canadians, and other underrepresented entrepreneurs who face barriers to launching and owning businesses through $300 million to enhance initiatives like the Black Entrepreneurship Program and the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy.
- Enriching the Canada Workers Benefit, which will support about 1 million more Canadians and lift nearly 100,000 people out of poverty. This will result in additional support of $8.9 billion over six years for Canada's low-wage workers.
- Helping to build, repair, and support 35,000 affordable housing units for vulnerable Canadians through an investment of $2.5 billion and a reallocation of $1.3 billion in existing funding.
