Budget 2021 is the Government of Canada's plan to finish the fight against COVID-19 and ensure a robust economic recovery that is inclusive of all Canadians.
Today, the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, President of the Treasury Board of Canada met with several housing and homelessness organizations in Quebec City to discuss the housing investments from Budget 2021: A Recovery Plan for Jobs, Growth, and Resilience.
The COVID-19 recession is the steepest and fastest economic contraction since the Great Depression. It has disproportionately affected low-wage workers, young people, women, and racialized Canadians. For businesses, it has been a two-speed recession, with some finding ways to prosper and grow, but many businesses-especially small businesses-fighting to survive. 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.
Investments to make housing more affordable for the most vulnerable, coupled with measures to limit foreign speculation in the housing market, will help ensure that our economic recovery is an inclusive on that helps more people join the middle class.
Budget 2021 proposes to provide an additional $2.5 billion over seven years to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, including:
- An additional $1.5 billion for the Rapid Housing Initiative to address the urgent housing needs of vulnerable Canadians by providing them with adequate affordable housing in short order. At least 25 per cent of this funding would go towards women-focused housing projects. Overall, this new funding will add a minimum of 4,500 new affordable units to Canada's housing supply, building on the 4,700 units already funded in the 2020 Fall Economic Statement through its $1 billion investment. The first version of this initiative resulted in the creation of 27 housing units in Quebec City, including the renovation and preservation of the Presbytery of St. Joseph in the Saint-Sauveur district.
- $600 million over seven years to renew and expand the Affordable Housing Innovation Fund. To date, this program has committed funding to support the creation of over 17,600 units, including more than 16,300 affordable housing units and units for persons with accessibility challenges. This new funding would support the creation of up to 12,700 more units.
- $315.4 million over seven years through the Canada Housing Benefit, to increase direct financial assistance for low-income women and children fleeing violence to help with their rent payments.
- $118.2 million over seven years through the Federal Community Housing Initiative, to support community housing providers that deliver long-term housing to many of our most vulnerable.
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. Budget 2021 invests in Canada's bio-manufacturing and life sciences sector to rebuild domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity and has a plan to put in place national standards for long-term care and mental health services.
Budget 2021 is a plan to bridge Canadians and Canadian businesses through the crisis and towards a robust recovery. It is a plan to drive economic growth, a plan to secure women's place in the workforce, and a plan to offer each and every child in Canada the best start in life. This plan will aim to reduce fees for parents by 50 per cent on average by 2022, with a goal of reaching $10 per day on average by 2025-26 for all regulated child care spaces in Canada. It proposes to extend business and income support measures through to the fall and to make investments to create jobs and help businesses across the economy come roaring back. It will support almost 500,000 new training and work opportunities including 215,000 opportunities for youth; support businesses in our most affected sectors such as tourism and arts and culture; and accelerate investment and digital transformation at small and medium-sized businesses. Budget 2021 is a plan that puts Canada on track to meet its commitment to create 1 million jobs by the end of the year.
Canada entered the pandemic in a strong fiscal position. This allowed the government to take quick and decisive action, supporting people and businesses, and put it in the position to make historic investments in the recovery.
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With Budget 2021, the Government of Canada is not only building for the future, but meeting Canadians most urgent needs right now. This budget is focussed on investments and real progress through more affordable housing, high quality childcare, a healthy environment and a plan to rebuild the economy and create more good, well-paying jobs for the middle class.
The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, President of the Treasury Board and Member of Parliament for Québec
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Quick facts
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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:
- Establish a pan-Canadian early learning and child care system, in partnership with provincial, territorial and Aboriginal partners, that will help all families have access to affordable, flexible and high quality child care, no matter where they live, so that they are no longer burdened by high child care costs. The budget proposes up to $30 billion in new investments over the next five years. Combined with the previous investments announced, at least $9.2 billion per year on an ongoing basis will be invested in child care, starting in 2025-2026.
- 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 for important income support for Canadians such as the Canada Recovery Benefit and the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit.
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Enhancing Employment Insurance sickness benefits from 15 to 26 weeks.
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Enhance Old Age Security for people aged 75 and over to provide them with greater financial security.
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Supporting small and medium-sized businesses through several transformative programs, such as:
- A new Canada Digital Adoption Program that will assist over 160,000 businesses with the cost of new technology. And it will provide them with the advice they need to get the most of new technology with the help of 28,000 young Canadians who will be trained to work with them.
- Allowing Canadian small businesses to fully expense up to $1.5 million in capital investments in a broad range of assets, including digital technology and intellectual property. This represents an additional $2.2 billion investment in the growth of Canada's entrepreneurs over the next five years.
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Revitalize the tourism sector with $1 billion in funding to help tourism businesses recover and to support the festivals and cultural events that provide jobs and growth in many of our cities and communities.
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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.
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Establishing a $15 federal minimum wage.
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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.
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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.
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Investing $17.6 billion in a green recovery that will help Canada to reach its target to conserve 25 per cent of Canada's lands and oceans by 2025, exceed its Paris climate targets and reduce emissions by 36 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, and move forward on a path to reach net-zero emission by 2050.
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Closing the gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples, supporting healthy, safe and prosperous Aboriginal communities and fostering meaningful reconciliation with First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nations through an unprecedented investment of over $18 billion.
