![]() This in itself is significant, as it represents the federal government potentially being more directly involved in affordable housing programs than it has been in decades (rather than simply writing cheques). $5 billion through a new National Housing Fund administered by the federal government through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.This will be part of a new agreement that will be negotiated to follow the current Investment in Affordable Housing program. $3.2 billion will be transferred to provincial and territorial governments, starting in 2019-2020.The overall annual commitment is lower than it has been for the last two years but higher than it had been for the preceding 20. The long time frame is consistent with other federal infrastructure funding initially announced last year. This commitment is similar to the request made by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, who called for $12.6 billion of the fund to go to affordable housing. The feature housing commitment in the budget is $11.2 billion over 11 years from the Social Infrastructure Fund for affordable housing, beginning in 2018-19.The section on housing opened with the statement “All Canadians need and deserve housing that is safe, adequate and affordable” echoing Maytree’s submission to the Let’s Talk Housing consultation.Together these account for about 60 per cent of the federal budget. A further $95 billion go to the largest cash transfers to individuals, whether through Old Age Security ($51 billion), the Canada Child Benefit ($23 billion) or Employment Insurance ($21 billion). The major transfers to provinces and territories are driven by formulas in long-term commitments and add up to $70 billion this year. $24 billion will go to pay interest on the debt. Of total federal spending, much is spoken for in different ways. It’s helpful to look at the $315 billion in federal spending in context to see what is really being decided on with any given budget plan. Sizable deficits are projected to continue for the foreseeable future, declining to $18.8 billion in 2021-2022. The government is projecting a $28.5 billion deficit this year, including a $3 billion risk cushion. That is well within normal fluctuations for a budget that totals $315 billion (and growing). On net the new spending commitments in this budget add $3.6 billion in spending over the next five years. The budget plan mostly outlines how those existing commitments will be rolled out, and in some cases moves funds from one priority to another. While GDP growth is projected to be somewhat weaker than in the fall, the projections for government fiscal outlook have improved between the fall and the budget.Īlmost all of the spending in the budget had been accounted for in the overall budget plans for the coming years (the “fiscal framework”). The economic picture surrounding the budget is fairly close to how it looked at the time of the last budget or the fall economic update. caregiving, child care, and skills training). The areas of greatest interest for Maytree were some long-term funding commitments for affordable housing, some commitments related to data, and some other more modest measures related to renewing the social contract (e.g. There was very little direct mention of poverty reduction in the budget or the forthcoming Poverty Reduction Strategy. Beyond the continued theme of supporting the “middle class,” the budget outlines a number of programs and policy choices aimed at promoting innovation, including plans to encourage “superclusters” and encouraging higher exports of goods and services. The bulk of the budget provides some more detail on how previously-announced funds (especially for infrastructure) will be allocated between different programs and priorities. Compared to last year’s budget, there are far fewer new initiatives outlined in this year’s plan – $1.3 billion of new spending was announced for the current year compared to $14.9 billion last year. The federal government tabled the 2017-18 budget plan on March 22.
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