The struggle for the middle class
A strong middle class means a strong Canada. At a time when global inflation has pushed up the costs of necessities like groceries, and housing costs have become too high for many, people are worried about their families. The Government of Canada is working to put more money back into the pockets of middle-class Canadians and remove barriers to building more homes, faster to lower the cost of housing — and there is still much more to be done.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today announced a host of new measures to support the middle class and the people working hard to join it. This includes taking action to build more rental housing, providing assistance to small business owners, and lowering the cost of groceries.
To continue taking urgent action to lower the cost of housing across the country, including for renters, the federal government has:
- It will stimulate the construction of much-needed rental homes by introducing legislation to abolish the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the construction of new residential buildings for renters. This is another tool for creating the conditions necessary to build the types of housing we need, and in which families want to live.
- We invite counties that currently apply provincial sales taxes or the provincial portion of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) to rental housing to join us by matching our rebate for new rental housing.
- Local governments will be required to end exclusionary zoning and encourage apartment construction near public transportation in order to approve Housing Acceleration Fund applications.
To support small business owners and their workers, who are at the heart of our communities and economy, the Prime Minister also announced that the Government:
- Canada will make changes to its Canada Emergency Business Account program, a pandemic measure that has helped small businesses stay afloat, including by extending the repayment deadline for term loans by one year.
To confront the rise in food prices for people, the Prime Minister announced that the government:
- Major grocery store chains are calling for grocery prices to stabilize in the near term. In recent years, major grocery stores have generated greater profits, all while the cost of groceries has skyrocketed and families struggle to put food on their tables. To address this issue, leaders of Canada’s largest grocery chains were invited to an immediate meeting in Ottawa to begin discussions to achieve this goal. We are also considering all the tools at our disposal, and are not ruling out the use of tax measures, in order to restore the grocery price stability that Canadians have come to expect.
- He would take immediate steps to boost competition across the Canadian economy, with a focus on the grocery sector, which would help lower costs for middle-class Canadians. The government intends to introduce the first set of legislative amendments to the law Competition law to:
- Granting the Competition Bureau the necessary powers to compel the production of information for effective and complete market studies;
- Removing the efficiencies defence, which currently allows anti-competitive mergers to overcome challenges if corporate efficiency offsets the harm to competition, even when Canadian consumers pay higher prices and have fewer choices; And
- Enabling the Bureau to take action against collaborations that stifle competition and consumer choice, particularly cases where large grocers prevent smaller competitors from establishing operations nearby.
Since 2015, the federal government has been working hard to put more money back into the pockets of Canadian families through the Canada Child Benefit, middle-class tax cuts, and in the next few years, child care will be regulated at an average of $10 per day. Right across the country. Last summer, during a period of the highest inflation rates in a generation, we moved quickly to provide relief to those who needed it most. As global inflation and the cost of housing continue to impact Canadians, we continue to take real action to make life more affordable and build an economy that works for everyone.
quotes
We are committed to defending the middle class, and we will not stop fighting until everyone has a real and fair chance to succeed. As we head into a new parliamentary session next week, we will continue to focus on the things that matter most to Canadians: making life affordable and creating good middle-class jobs now and in the future.
“Our priority since 2015 has been building a strong middle class so everyone can succeed, but there is still more work to do. The actions we are announcing today will make it easier to build more of the homes Canadians need and ensure our businesses and their employees thrive – and we will continue to work.” Delivering services to Canadians from coast to coast to coast.
“We need to change the economic equation so that builders facing rising construction costs as a result of global inflation have the financial incentive to build projects that would not otherwise go ahead. Removing the GST will encourage Canadian home builders to build more homes in communities across Canada, which will lower the cost of rent for ordinary Canadians in communities across the country.
“Our government is taking concrete actions to stabilize food prices and improve competition in Canada. That’s why the industry needs to step up on meaningful solutions. But that’s not all. We also need updated tools to modernize our competition environment. Our government will continue to work day in and day out to provide relief for consumers and increased competition.
quick Facts
- To build more rental housing, the GST removal will apply to new purpose-built rentals, i.e. residential buildings, student housing and senior housing purpose-built for long-term rental housing.
- Launched in March 2023, the Housing Accelerator Fund is a $4 billion initiative of the Government of Canada and runs until 2026-2027. It is designed to help cities, towns and Indigenous governments unleash a new housing supply — about 100,000 units in total — by accelerating development and approvals processes, such as overhauling antiquated permitting systems, introducing zoning reforms to build more density, and stimulating development. Close to public transportation. Local governments are encouraged to think big and innovate in their approaches.
- Launched during the pandemic, the Canada Emergency Business Account Program provided interest-free, partially forgivable loans to nearly 900,000 small businesses and non-profit organizations to help them stay afloat and continue contributing to our communities.
- Today’s announcement builds on other recent measures to make life more affordable for Canadians, including:
- Double the Goods and Services Tax Credit for six months to provide immediate support to about 11 million low- and modest-income Canadians who need it most, and provide a one-time increase of $500 to the Canada Housing Benefit, providing $402 million to more than 500,000 people And 303 thousand families until June 7, 2023.
- Making the grocery rebate available to about 11 million eligible Canadians with low and modest incomes and families hardest hit by rising food prices across the country, with rebates ranging from $234 for individuals without children to $467 for families with two children.
- Enhancing benefits for Canadian workers by offering automatic advance payments, to put money into the pockets of Canada’s lowest-paid — and often most important — workers faster.
- Provide structured child care for an average of $10 per day in every province and territory in the coming years, and support the creation of more child care places by the Quebec government. Additionally, thousands of much-needed child care spaces have already been created in communities from coast to coast to coast.
- Making Canada Student Loans and Canada Learner Loans, including those currently repayable, permanently interest-free, helping the average student loan borrower save $610 per year, based on current interest rates.
- Increase the federal minimum wage from $15.55 to $16.65 per hour, to keep pace with inflation and help make life more affordable for nearly 26,000 Canadian workers across the country.
- Increase Old Age Security benefits for seniors aged 75 and over by 10 percent from July 2022, providing more than $800 in additional support for full pensioners.
- Wide-ranging consultations about the future Competition law It was first announced in the 2022 budget, and implemented in 2023. The government plans to introduce comprehensive legislative reforms to Competition law In the coming months.
