2022 federal budget

The federal government has lots of cash, but little political courage, writes David Macdonald, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Measures in the recently tabled federal budget will help Canadians weather higher interest rates, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday, April 13, 2022, as he acknowledged there are no easy solutions to the country's housing affordability crisis.

Advocates say while the focus on housing affordability in the federal budget is promising, its measures could go further to help people in the most dire need.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s second pandemic budget turns Canada’s fiscal focus to making life more affordable and giving a long-needed boost to Canadian productivity.

Ottawa is preparing to spend $4.3 billion over seven years to help improve Indigenous housing, while also giving more to help communities contend with the harmful past of residential schools.

Officials also acknowledged that even with an additional $8 billion, Canada will remain far short of NATO’s spending target, even as other allies dramatically ramp up their own military investments following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The cash will come through existing dollars baked into the government’s fiscal framework.  

Affordability, housing, education, mental health support, climate change. Do youth have anything to hope for in the federal budget out Thursday? A polling expert, youth advocate and student union rep weigh in on what matters.