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We stand in solidarity with the 120000 Treasury Board workers who overwhelmingly voted for a strike mandate.

Workers at the Treasury Board have been without a contract for more than a year while the cost of living soars.

Workers at the Canada Revenue Agency voted for a strike mandate last week. If the parties dont reach an agreement, Treasury board workers could be on strike right away and could be joined by the 35000 workers from the Revenue Agency as soon as Friday.

It is frustrating to see Trudeaus Liberals being okay with CEOs like Galen Weston being paid $11,79 million, but not okay with federal public service workers getting a decent wage offer that keeps up with inflation and recognizes people's hard work during the pandemic.

It's time for the Liberals to return to the negotiation table with a decent offer. Public service workers and Canadians deserve nothing less.

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Jagmeet Singh is calling on the Liberals to go back to the table with ... - New Democratic Party

OTTAWA Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is set to table a federal budget in the House of Commons on Tuesday afternoon, which a federal source says will include plans to go after predatory lending and more details on dental care as part of a pitch to make life more affordable.

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The government official, who was granted anonymity to discuss matters that will not be public until the budget is released, said the federal Liberals intend to amend the Criminal Code to lower the amount of interest legally allowed to be charged.

Predatory lending often involves short-term loans at sky-high high interest rates. Often marketed to people in financially precarious situations, they can create a cycle of debt tough to escape.

The Criminal Code currently caps the legal interest rate at 60 per cent effective annual interest, which has been the case since it was set in 1980 a time when the key overnight rate set by the Bank of Canada was 21 per cent, compared to the 4.5 per cent it is today.

There is an exemption in most provinces for payday loans of up to $1,500 for 62 days or less, which means in some provinces the maximum annualized percentage rate is over 400 per cent.

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The source said the 2023 budget will propose the criminal interest rate be lowered to 35 per cent, which is what it is in Quebec, where courts have ruled anything higher would violate provincial consumer protection legislation. As a result, payday loan options there are limited.

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The move grows out of consultations announced in the 2021 budget, which did not address payday loans directly. The source said Tuesdays budget will propose consultations on narrowing the exemptions to the criminal interest rate when it comes to payday loans.

Getting tough on predatory lending is one way the Liberals are expected to portray this budget as offering to help vulnerable Canadians struggling with the cost of living, while balancing the need as strongly signalled by Freeland in her pre-budget speeches to show fiscal restraint.

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Another will be offering more details on the dental-care plan, with the federal government source confirming Tuesdays budget will include a meaningful investment on that front.

Last year, the Liberals committed to some form of federal dental-care coverage for low-income Canadians in its confidence-and-supply agreement with the New Democrats.

The deal means the NDP agreed to support the minority Liberal government through key votes until 2025 including on federal budgets in exchange for movement on shared priorities.

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The Liberals were unable to set up a federal dental-care program in time for the first deadline, but brought in an interim benefit last fall for children under the age of 12 in low-income households.

The confidence-and-supply agreement stipulates that dental care must be expanded to those who are under the age of 18, seniors or people with disabilities in low-income households by the end of this year and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he expects the money in the budget.

The deal also commits the Liberals to passing legislation on a national pharmacare program by the end of 2023 although theres been no sign of movement on that yet.

Lower-income Canadians can expect another cash benefit to help them pay their bills, while companies looking to mine critical minerals, make batteries and electric vehicles or produce clean electricity will see a host of measures to incentivize investment in their projects.

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The budget will also extend the temporary boost to the GST rebate for low-income Canadians, but will frame the payment as help with the rising cost of groceries.

It would provide up to $234 for a single person with no children, $467 for a couple with two children and $225 for a senior citizen, the same amounts as the government offered with the temporary doubling of the GST rebate last fall.

The budget is also expected to increase the withdrawal limit for a registered education savings plan from $5,000 to $8,000.

As The Canadian Press first reported last week, the budget will also outline the federal governments plan to work with regulatory agencies to go after hidden or unexpected surcharges tacked on to the prices of goods and services.

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The Liberals are also expected to make significant investments in clean energy and technology.

The Fall Economic Statement in November began Canadas attempt to respond to the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States. That policy, pushed by President Joe Biden, injects more than US$370 billion into clean technology and climate change policies, including some significant subsidies for companies that make renewable energy and carbon capture and storage systems.

In November, Freeland promised investment tax credits for hydrogen production and some clean tech, such as renewable electricity like solar and wind power, heat pumps and industrial electric vehicles.

Several sources, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the budget, said there will be new tax credits for the green economy. One of those sources described the tax credits as significant.

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They are intended to spur investment in the critical mineral industry and along the electric vehicle supply chain. That would include, for example, battery components and assembly.

During her pre-budget speeches, Freeland insisted the budget will show fiscal restraint and warned the government wont be able to compensate every Canadian for the rise in prices.

She has to balance all the spending demands with the risk the economy is going to take a turn for the worse this year. High interest rates could push Canada into a recession, which would affect tax revenues the government relies on to finance spending.

And with inflation a top concern for the Bank of Canada, the federal government is facing pressure to not fuel it further with high spending.

Freeland is expected to table the budget in the House of Commons at 4 p.m. EDT and deliver remarks on the document.

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Liberals to go after predatory lending in budget, invest in dental care plan - Toronto Sun

By The Canadian Press | March 27, 2023, 9:45am

Canadian should expect major funding for the clean economy in Tuesday's budget | Greg Pease/Stone/Getty Images

The federal Liberal government is expected to release its budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year on Tuesday.

Here's a look at three big things to expect:

Investments in the clean economy

Ottawa is expected to make big investments in clean energy and technology in the upcoming budget as it tries to keep competitive in the transition toward a greener economy.

Canada's main competitor is the United States, which decided last summer to invest nearly US$400 billion over ten years in the Inflation Reduction Act.

The law targets that investment in key areas tied to the clean economy: critical minerals, battery manufacturing, electric vehicles and renewable energy, including hydrogen.

As part of Canada's efforts to keep up, the government is expected to introduce new tax credits in the budget that would encourage the development of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

Promises on affordability

The Liberals have sought to signal that more help is on the way for vulnerable Canadians who are struggling with the cost of living.

In a speech delivered in Oshawa, Ont. last Monday, Finance MinisterChrystiaFreeland said the budget would include targeted inflation relief. But she warned the federal government won't have the capacity to compensate all Canadians for the rise in prices caused by global inflation.

The NDP has called on the federal government to extend the temporary boost to theGSTrebate that was offered in the fall. When he was recently asked about the potential move, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would not say if it was in the cards.

NDP LeaderJagmeetSingh has also called for federal funding for school lunches.

Following a U.S. decision to target hidden and unexpected consumer fees, the government intends to include its own crackdown on "junk fees" in the budget.

Big health-care spending

Last month, the federal government offered provinces and territories nearly $200 billion in funding for health care over the next 10 years. The spending on those agreements is expected to be allocated in the upcoming budget.

But the NDP, which agreed to support the Liberal minority government on key votes in exchange for movement on its priorities, is looking for far bigger commitments on the health front.

As part of the deal, the Liberals have already agreed to create a federally funded and administered dental care program this year. It would replace the dental benefit for children in low-income families that was rolled out in the fall.

The agreement also commits the Liberals to passing legislation to create a nationalpharmacareprogram by the end of 2023.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2023.

NojoudAlMallees, The Canadian Press

Link:
These are the three things you should expect in the federal Liberals' upcoming budget - Business in Vancouver

Up is down. War is peace. And not spending billions of dollars you dont have is reckless, according to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.

Investments in our economic capacity are fiscally responsible. And failure to make the necessary investments in our economic capacity and our economic future, that is irresponsible, and that is reckless, Ms. Freeland told an Oshawa, Ont., audience this week.

That should certainly put to rest any worry that the Liberals might match their rhetoric of fiscal prudence with any real spending restraint in next Tuesdays budget. Last falls halfhearted projection of a surplus in fiscal 2027-28 is likely to be a distant memory. As the accompanying chart shows, the spurt of Liberal spending since last spring means Canada is more likely headed for wall-to-wall deficits over the next half-decade, despite an inflation-fuelled surge in revenues.

The governments fall economic statement forecast cumulative deficits of $69.4-billion from the coming fiscal year through to fiscal 2028. According to the most recent projections from the Parliamentary Budget Officer, those cumulative deficits have nearly doubled, to $112.7-billion. And that is before Ms. Freeland tacks on extra billions of dollars of definitely-not-reckless spending in Tuesdays budget.

The Finance Ministers view on what is, or is not, reckless fiscal policy seems anchored in the world of two years past, when the prospect of a long stretch of low interest rates emboldened progressive governments to splash billions of dollars on pet projects, and to shrug at the arithmetic of higher deficits and debt.

According to the PBO, debt servicing costs are on course to nearly double between fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2028, rising to a projected $46-billion from $24.5-billion. Debt costs are, by far, the fastest growing expense line for Ottawa.

None of that seems to be discouraging new spending initiatives. In her prebudget stumping, Ms. Freeland hinted that she will focus new spending on limited cost-of-living assistance for poorer Canadians, higher health transfers and aggressively subsidizing sorry, investing in the green economy. And there is sure to be additional spending on the newly launched federal dental benefits.

Those outlays will come on top of last years omnidirectional spending, also aimed at retooling Canadas economy. Now, we do agree that much more needs to be done to reinvigorate this countrys economic performance. In the last budget, Ms. Freeland rightly flagged the persistent problem of poor productivity growth. That was a long overdue recognition that our future prosperity is imperilled.

But the governments response to an increasingly sclerotic economy has been more intervention, more bureaucracy, more spending and more debt. Theres little to indicate that next week will mark any break from the Liberals enthusiasm for 1970s-style economic interventionism that pushes investment decisions into the hands of government.

Budgets are about making choices. In our prebudget coverage, weve laid out some of those choices: pruning benefits for wealthy, elderly Canadians; boosting child-care transfers to keep pace with inflation; avoiding a ruinous increase in health care transfers; boosting defence spending; and rolling back the size of government.

Budgets are about deciding where to spend, and just as important, where not to spend. The biggest fiscal failure of the Trudeau Liberals has been their insistence on ignoring this basic tenet of sound finance, and instead each year layering new spending on old, while blithely ignoring the mounting pressure of the national debt.

That deliberate, persistent failure can be summed up in just one word reckless.

Link:
Globe editorial: Budget 2023: The Liberals' reckless deficit of choice - The Globe and Mail

Opinion

As Labor governments blanket the mainland, the Liberal party is left divided over the cause of its failures and a path back to government

Sun 26 Mar 2023 23.37 EDT

The Coalition loss in NSW has left Tasmanian premier Jeremy Rockliff the most senior elected Liberal in the nation. Mainland Australia is now governed coast-to-coast by Labor governments at both the state and federal level a political map not seen since 2007.

The election result will provoke some deep soul-searching in Liberal ranks. One of the debates already under way is whether this new national picture reflects a common theme or if there are factors unique to each state that makes a national narrative more difficult to ascertain. Its an important question and will determine some of the learnings for the Liberal party.

Former prime minister John Howard has, for example, argued that we are not seeing a coherent nationwide policy movement against the Liberal party. But I suspect the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

The NSW election was largely lost by factors not directly comparable to say the landslide loss faced by Liberals on the other side of the continent at the 2021 Western Australian state election. Yet it would be a mistake for Liberals not to recognise underlying trends that are impacting support for the Liberal brand.

In NSW, the biggest factor at play seemed to be an its time feeling for a Coalition government seeking a record fourth election win. Issues like cost-of-living pressures undoubtedly had an impact, even if many of these are beyond the capacity of a state government to influence. And for the NSW Liberal party there are clearly ongoing lessons in relation to some candidate selections and their timing and some of the internal issues that hindered the campaign.

Having spent hours on pre-poll and at a polling booth on Saturday in my own local electorate of North Shore, what was exceptionally notable was the difference between the state and federal election. Not one voter said to me they were voting against the Liberal party because of antipathy towards Premier Perrottet. I cant say the same about my experience during the federal election.

Some conservative commentators, particularly those who emerge after dark, tried to argue in the lead-up to the election (and, ridiculously, have not stopped in the days since) that the NSW Liberals were facing a massive backlash because of the governments support for strong measures to address climate change. Energy minister and treasurer, Matt Kean, bore the brunt of those attacks. Their hypothesis was that the progressive policies of the Berejiklian and Perrottet governments in areas like climate and gambling reform would lead to an electoral bonanza for parties like One Nation. Latham and One Nation were happy to fuel this narrative and, in addition to their campaigns in western Sydney, even took their fight to Keans own northern Sydney electorate.

Yet One Nations vote barely moved. In the Upper House, it looks like its representation will actually fall. In Keans own seat the swing against him went to Labor and the Greens, which would hardly point to concerns about him being too progressive.

The reality is the climate policies Kean, with the support of Perrottet, pursued reflected the type of centrist approach voters want from our party. Its the reason Climate 200-backed teal candidates did not succeed in replicating the teal wave of last years federal election. WWF independently rated NSW as the Australian leader for supporting renewable energy and this was recognised by voters. Without the approach Kean and others pursued we would have seen a very different outcome in what are traditionally considered heartland Liberal seats.

This goes to the national learnings for Liberals from our recent losses. Despite the differences between the elections at state and federal level, there is an undercurrent of trends we must be prepared to face. We have to also recognise support for the Liberal brand is overwhelmingly influenced by what happens in Canberra, not state capitals, such is the centrality of federal politics in the media and the minds of voters.

Across the country the party has seen a decline in support from various demographics: younger voters, women and some sections of our multicultural communities, particularly Chinese Australians.

The NSW Liberal government brought an approach which responded to many of the concerns driving voters away from the Liberal party on issues like climate change and support for working women. To be effective, federal Liberals must be prepared to travel a similar path and the approach they take will shape perceptions of the party in all jurisdictions for years to come.

Finally, a word on grace in politics. The strength of any democracy is dependent on the willingness of those who lose to accept the verdict of their fellow citizens. In the United States we have seen the corrosive impact of failed candidates like Trump who seek to undermine election outcomes by questioning the electoral process and the verdict of voters. The type of grace we saw from Dominic Perrottet on Saturday night in his concession speech and the way in which both leaders conducted themselves during the campaign should be the source of pride for those of us living in our largest state. Lets hope thats a trend we see sustained beyond 2023.

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The Liberal brand is tarnished. Some hard truths must be faced in the wake of another election loss - The Guardian