Minister Morneau Takes Investing in Middle Class Budget to Montréal

March 28, 2019 – Montréal, Quebec – Department of Finance Canada

The Government of Canada is taking the next steps in its plan to strengthen and grow the middle class, and build an economy that works for everyone. Since 2015, that plan has helped hard-working Canadians create more than 900,000 new jobs—the majority of them full-time—and drive unemployment to its lowest levels in more than 40 years.

Today, Minister of Finance Bill Morneau spoke to the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal at le Centre Sheraton about Budget 2019, Investing in the Middle Class. He discussed the important steps the Budget takes to make sure that all Canadians benefit from Canada's economic growth—including first-time home buyers, workers, young people and seniors.

The Government proposes to support Canadian businesses and families through Budget 2019 by:

• Making homeownership more affordable for first-time buyers by implementing the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive, a shared equity mortgage program that would reduce the mortgage payments required to own a home; and by providing greater access to their Registered Retirement Savings Plan savings to buy a home.
• Helping workers gain new skills with the creation of the new Canada Training Benefit, a benefit that will give workers money to help pay for training, provide income support during training, and, with the cooperation of the provinces and territories, offer job protection so that workers can take the time they need to keep their skills relevant and in-demand.
• Providing more on-the-job learning opportunities to young Canadians by providing funding to create up to 84,000 new student work placements per year by 2023-24 so that more students can gain relevant, real-world work experience while they are still in school, and develop the skills employers need.
• Supporting municipalities' local infrastructure priorities by providing a one-time top-up of $2.2 billion, doubling the federal municipal infrastructure commitment in 2018–19. This will help municipalities and First Nations communities with the funds needed to pay for crucial repairs and other important local projects. This includes $504 million for Quebec.
• Supporting low-income Canadian seniors who choose to stay in the workforce by enhancing the Guaranteed Income Supplement earnings exemption so that they can effectively keep more of their hard-earned income.
• Ensuring access to high-speed internet so all Canadian homes and businesses have access to download speeds of at least 50 megabits per second (Mbps) no matter where they are located.
• Lowering Canadians' energy costs by partnering with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities with $1.01 billion in investments to increase energy efficiency in residential, commercial and multi-unit buildings.
• Making it easier and more affordable for Canadians to choose a zero-emission vehicle by expanding the network of zero-emission vehicle charging and refuelling stations and creating new incentives for people and businesses to purchase zero-emission vehicles.
• Enhancing support for innovation by improving the Scientific Research and Experimental Development Tax Incentive Program for growing innovative firms.

With Budget 2019, the Government is continuing to invest in people and grow the economy for the long term, in a fiscally responsible way—ensuring that Canada's federal debt-to-GDP ratio continues on a steady downward track.