Today, I would like to reiterate some of the key pillars of Budget 2021, and some ways in which Bill C-30 will give concrete help to people in what is still, for far too many Canadians, a time of worry and hardship.
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Today, I would like to reiterate some of the key pillars of Budget 2021, and some ways in which Bill C-30 will give concrete help to people in what is still, for far too many Canadians, a time of worry and hardship.
Because make no mistake: even with our sustained efforts, even with progress on vaccinations, COVID is still here. The third wave is still here. So the need to adopt these legislative measures is urgent.
When fully enacted, this bill will create, in total, nearly 500,000 new training and work opportunities for Canadians.
We are making a historic commitment to early learning and child care; $30 billion over five years, reaching $9.2 billion every year in permanent investments. Within five years, families everywhere across Canada should have access to high-quality child care, for an average of $10 a day.
And once again I want to thank Quebec for its leadership – especially feminists in Quebec for their leadership – when it comes to this type of child care program.
This budget invests $5.7 billion over five years in Canada’s young people, doubling the Canada Student Grant for two additional years and extending the waiver of interest payments on federal student loans through March of 2023. More than 350,000 low-income student borrowers will have access to more generous repayment assistance.
We propose to expand the Canada Workers Benefit, to invest $8.9 billion over six years in additional support for low-wage workers – extending income top-ups to about a million more Canadians and lifting nearly 100,000 people out of poverty. In addition, the budget establishes a $15 an hour federal minimum wage.
To help small businesses recover and grow, this budget contains a new Canada Recovery Hiring Program, that will run from June to November and provide up to $595 million to make it easier for businesses to bring back laid-off workers, or to hire new ones.
We will also invest up to $4 billion to help up to 160,000 small and medium-sized businesses buy and adopt the new technologies they need to grow and become more productive and more competitive.
And, we will encourage businesses to invest in themselves, by allowing for immediate expensing of up to $1.5 million of eligible investments by Canadian-controlled private corporations, in each of the next three years.
These larger deductions will support about 325,000 businesses in making critical investments.
Finally, we are providing targeted support to the hardest-hit industries – the hospitality, tourism, culture and aerospace sectors. We will revitalize the tourism sector with an investment of $1 billion. This is in addition to the $2 billion we are providing to the aerospace sector.
Simply put, our priority is to ensure that Canadians can get back to work.
This budget is about growth, and about jobs. It’s about people. It’s about making concrete, targeted investments to heal the wounds of COVID, and to put Canada on a long-term track towards higher growth, towards greater prosperity, and towards a clean, green future. The Budget Implementation Act, tabled today, is the first, major step in delivering on this plan.
As the Prime Minister said, it also includes extensions and expansions of critical COVID-19 support programs for businesses and for people – including the wage subsidy, the rent subsidy, and recovery benefits.
These supports are vital, as I have heard in roundtables across the country this week. And these supports will continue to be vital until the virus is beaten.
The legislation also takes significant steps to drive future growth, investing in our social infrastructure and our physical infrastructure. In our human capital. And in our physical capital.
When enacted, this budget will make a measurable difference in the lives of millions of Canadians.
I very much hope that our colleagues across the aisle will consider this legislation with the seriousness and indeed the sense of urgency that Canadians need right now.
Thank you.