Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole dismissed the federal government’s fall economic statement saying a three-year plan to provide stimulus to the economy is pointless without first revealing how Canadians will be vaccinated against COVID-19.
“The minister of finance has proven their government has no plan. Without a plan for vaccines, there can be no long-term plan for our economy,” O’Toole said in the House of Commons on Monday.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland responded that enough vaccine has been prepurchased to ensure there are up to 10 doses for every Canadian, but she did not provide details on how vaccines will be rolled out in Canada.
“We don’t know the first date vaccines will be received. Almost, most of our allies do, in fact the U.K. and the U.S. will start receiving them in the next few days. Canadians are going to be asking questions and they deserve answers,” O’Toole later told CBC News Network’s Power & Politics.
“This is a debacle,” he told host Vassy Kapelos. “We’re pushing because there is a real problem here.”
WATCH | O’Toole pushes for vaccine plan:
Opposition Leader Erin O’Toole says the government needs to present a clear plan for distributing vaccines to Canadians. 1:27
O’Toole also said the government’s efforts to provide economic support to both companies and individuals could have been more effective if implemented sooner.
“The truth is the Liberals’ economic response has been erratic and confused. Millions more Canadians were put on the CERB than necessary when their jobs could have been maintained if the Liberals had implemented a wage subsidy earlier,” he said.
In Monday’s fiscal update Freeland projects that the deficit will reach $381.6 billion by the end of March 2021 and could climb higher, depending on the rate of COVID-19 infections.
The Liberal government said it is preparing to spend up to $100 billion to kick-start the post-pandemic economy over the next three years, promising it would provide details in the coming months.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said there should be much more detail about the government’s plan to provide economic stimulus, especially when the government is so deeply in debt.
“They have renounced the very idea of controlling deficits,” Blanchet said. “They basically say there is no limit to what they will spend without saying, or without admitting, how badly sometimes they do spend it.”
WATCH | O’Toole claims government’s slow response led to job losses:
Reacting to the federal government’s Fall Economic Statement, Opposition Leader Erin O’Toole says the government’s slow response to the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has caused thousands of job losses. 1:43
NDP finance critic Peter Julian told the House of Commons that the economic statement should be a signal to Canadians that “austerity is coming.”
Leader Jagmeet Singh was later asked by Kapelos to clarify that position. He said the government’s plan to reduce supports as the economy recovers is evidence Canadians should be concerned.
“If you look at their economic update in the next years, past Year Two and Three, we see clearly cuts to the help that people need,” Singh told Kapelos.
Singh was particularly critical of the Liberal government’s decision to put off directly taxing web giants such as Amazon and Google until 2022, while starting to collect GST/HST on goods and services provided by foreign-based digital companies.
Watch: NDP Leader Singh says Fall Economic Statement shows future ‘cuts to the help that people need’
Reacting to the Fall Economic Statement, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says the government should be more focused on generating revenue from wealthy individuals and corporations so that it can continue to invest in helping people in a sustained way 4:18
Singh said the application of the GST was important because it put Canadian companies on an even footing with foreign companies, but was meaningless because it failed to directly tax those corporations.
“Why is it, six years into their government, they still have not actually made web giants pay a single, effectively a cent, of corporate tax? Actually revenue-based taxes that they make off of Canadians in Canada?” he asked Kapelos.
Singh said he wanted to see a wealth tax that targets people that have more than $20 million and also “pandemic profiteering taxes” levied on companies that have “made massive profits off the backs of Canadians,” during the pandemic.
Green Party Leader Annamie Paul welcomed some of the environmental initiatives in the economic statement, particularly issues that help the federal government achieve its net-zero objective.
“There are also enhanced investments in the infrastructure, projects and those sectors which will move us toward net-zero by helping to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions,” she said.
However she criticized the failure to deliver a plan that would see emissions cut by 60 per cent from 2005 levels or the implementation of a carbon budget setting out the maximum level of emissions Canada can emit and still keep global temperatures from rising.
Watch: Green Party leader says Liberal government is delaying many initiatives past the next election
Federal Green Party Leader Annamie Paul spoke with reporters after the fiscal update on Monday. 1:04
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says retail sales rose 0.4 per cent to $66.6 billion in August, helped by higher new car sales.
The agency says sales were up in four of nine subsectors as sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers rose 3.5 per cent, boosted by a 4.3 per cent increase at new car dealers and a 2.1 per cent gain at used car dealers.
Core retail sales — which exclude gasoline stations and fuel vendors and motor vehicle and parts dealers — fell 0.4 per cent in August.
Sales at food and beverage retailers dropped 1.5 per cent, while furniture, home furnishings, electronics and appliances retailers fell 1.4 per cent.
In volume terms, retail sales increased 0.7 per cent in August.
Looking ahead, Statistics Canada says its advance estimate of retail sales for September points to a gain of 0.4 per cent for the month, though it cautioned the figure would be revised.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2024.
OTTAWA – The federal government is expected to boost the minimum hourly wage that must be paid to temporary foreign workers in the high-wage stream as a way to encourage employers to hire more Canadian staff.
Under the current program’s high-wage labour market impact assessment (LMIA) stream, an employer must pay at least the median income in their province to qualify for a permit. A government official, who The Canadian Press is not naming because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the change, said Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault will announce Tuesday that the threshold will increase to 20 per cent above the provincial median hourly wage.
The change is scheduled to come into force on Nov. 8.
As with previous changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker program, the government’s goal is to encourage employers to hire more Canadian workers. The Liberal government has faced criticism for increasing the number of temporary residents allowed into Canada, which many have linked to housing shortages and a higher cost of living.
The program has also come under fire for allegations of mistreatment of workers.
A LMIA is required for an employer to hire a temporary foreign worker, and is used to demonstrate there aren’t enough Canadian workers to fill the positions they are filling.
In Ontario, the median hourly wage is $28.39 for the high-wage bracket, so once the change takes effect an employer will need to pay at least $34.07 per hour.
The government official estimates this change will affect up to 34,000 workers under the LMIA high-wage stream. Existing work permits will not be affected, but the official said the planned change will affect their renewals.
According to public data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, 183,820 temporary foreign worker permits became effective in 2023. That was up from 98,025 in 2019 — an 88 per cent increase.
The upcoming change is the latest in a series of moves to tighten eligibility rules in order to limit temporary residents, including international students and foreign workers. Those changes include imposing caps on the percentage of low-wage foreign workers in some sectors and ending permits in metropolitan areas with high unemployment rates.
Temporary foreign workers in the agriculture sector are not affected by past rule changes.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
