Federal government’s 2022 Fall Economic Statement: Making life more affordable and building an economy that works for everyone

CHRYSTIA Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, on Thursday released the 2022 Fall Economic Statement.

She said: “Today’s Fall Economic Statement is focused on building an economy that works for everyone—an economy that creates good jobs and which makes life more affordable for Canadians. Even as we face global headwinds, the investments we are making today will make Canada more sustainable and more prosperous for generations to come.”

According to the federal government, amid global economic uncertainty, the statement outlines its’s plan to continue its sound stewardship of the economy and to be there for Canadians. To help families cope with increasing costs, like rising prices at the checkout counter, the federal government says it is delivering targeted support to the people who need it the most.

It also moves forward on the government’s comprehensive plan to make housing more affordable, including by helping people save to buy a home and by cracking down on house flipping. And it lays out an ambitious plan to strengthen industry and build a thriving net-zero economy with opportunities and jobs, across the country and across the economy.

The federal government says the Canadian economy faces global headwinds from a position of fundamental strength: an unemployment rate near its record low—400,000 more Canadians are working today than before the pandemic, the strongest economic growth in the G7 this year, a triple-A credit rating, and the lowest net debt- and deficit-to-GDP ratios in the G7. Canadians should be confident that we will overcome any hurdles and prosper in the days ahead.

The federal government’s fiscal anchor—the unwinding of COVID-19-related deficits and reducing the federal debt-to-GDP ratio over the medium term—remains unchanged. The federal debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to continuously decline and is on a steeper downward track than projected in Budget 2022.

 

  • New measures proposed in the 2022 Fall Economic Statement include:

    1. Making Life More Affordable:

    • Permanently eliminating interest on federal student and apprentice loans;
    • Creating a new, quarterly Canada Workers Benefit with automatic advance payments to put more money back in the pockets of our lowest-paid workers, sooner;
    • Delivering on key pillars of the government’s plan to make housing more affordable, including the creation of a new Tax-Free First Home Savings Account, a doubling of the First-Time Home Buyers’ Tax Credit, and ensuring that property flippers pay their fair share; and,
    • Lowering credit card transaction fees for small business.

     

    2.  Investing in Jobs, Growth, and an Economy That Works for Everyone:

    • Launching the new Canada Growth Fund which will help bring to Canada the billions of dollars in new private investment required to reduce our emissions, grow our economy, and create good jobs;
    • Introducing major investment tax credits for clean technologies and clean hydrogen that will help create good jobs and make Canada a leader in the net-zero transition;
    • Implementing a new tax on share buybacks by public corporations in Canada; and,
    • Creating the Sustainable Jobs Training Centre and investing in a new sustainable jobs stream of the Union Training and Innovation Program to equip workers with the skills required for the good jobs of today and the future.