Toronto, Ontario
Today the Minister of Public Safety, the Honourable Marco Mendicino, met with LiUNA members in Toronto to highlight Budget 2023's investments in creating good jobs and growing a clean economy.
Canada has made a remarkable recovery from the COVID recession. Canada's economic growth was the strongest in the G7 over the last year, and today, 830,000 more Canadians are employed than before the pandemic, including 361,600 here in Ontario. Inflation in Canada has fallen for eight months in a row, our unemployment rate is near its record low, and, supported by our Canada-wide system of affordable early learning and child care, the labour force participation rate for women aged 25 to 54 reached at a record high of 85.7 per cent in February.
Budget 2023 builds on this important progress.
It makes transformative investments to fight climate change and create new opportunities for Canadian businesses and workers. This includes significant measures that will deliver cleaner and more affordable energy, support investment in our communities, and create good paying jobs.
To accelerate investments in clean technology manufacturing, Budget 2023 proposes a refundable tax credit equal to 30 per cent of the cost of investments in machinery and equipment used to manufacture or process key clean technologies, and extract, process, or recycle certain critical minerals essential to clean technology supply chains.
The clean economy we are building is one that is worker-driven; one that creates more good careers today, where the unions that built the middle class can thrive, and where young people don't have to move across the country just to find a job that pays them well. This is a plan that will create good careers and opportunities for everyone, anywhere in Canada.
At the same time, the government is taking steps to make life more affordable. Budget 2023 delivers the new Grocery Rebate, offering targeted inflation relief for 11 million Canadians and families who need it most with up to an additional $467 for eligible couples with children; an additional $234 for single Canadians without children; and an additional $225 for seniors, on average. The government is also taking action to crack down on junk fees and predatory lending, lower credit card transaction fees for small businesses, and help Canadians keep more money in their pockets.
To strengthen Canada's universal public health care system, the budget delivers
$198.3 billion, including $77.006 billion here in Ontario to reduce backlogs, expand access to family health services, and ensure provinces and territories can provide the high quality and timely health care Canadians expect and deserve. Budget 2023 also introduces a new Canadian Dental Care Plan, to help up to nine million Canadians and ensure no Canadian has to choose between taking care of their health and paying the bills at the end of the month.
With a responsible fiscal plan that will see Canada maintain the lowest deficit and the lowest net debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7, Budget 2023 will help to build a Canada that is more secure, more sustainable, and more affordable for people from coast to coast to coast.
