$ 15B: Costs of the Liberal-NDP agreement in the federal budget 2022

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The Liberal government’s 2022 budget includes about $ 15 billion for major initiatives related to its supply and trust agreement with the NDP – enough to appease NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.

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Singh said the NDP would support the budget, telling reporters that although his party did not agree with some of the steps in the budget, it was “an example of simple faith displayed.”

The Liberal-NDP agreement, announced last month, included a number of budget provisions related to housing and health initiatives, including a dental care program. Another NDP asked that the budget expect to bring in about $ 6.1 billion in five years from new taxes on banks and financial institutions.

Before the NDP-Liberal agreement was listed as a priority, some spending arrangements, such as the $ 4 billion for a new housing accelerator fund, were also on the Liberals’ electoral platform. Others, especially dental care, come from the NDP.

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The budget allocates $ 5.3 billion over five years and then $ 1.7 billion on an ongoing basis for dental care programs. Children under the age of 12 will be covered this year, who will be covered under the program rather than extending to persons under the age of 18, older and disabled next year. The program, which will be available to households with an annual income of less than 90,000, will be fully implemented by 2025.

Pharmacare was another high-profile NDP priority, where the two sides agreed to continue progress on a universal national pharmacare plan. The budget does not allocate any funds for pharmacare, but says the government will raise a Canadian pharmacare bill and work to pass it by the end of 2023, and will work with the Canadian drug agency to create the necessary drugs and bulk national formulations. “

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Singh said on Wednesday that the NDP-Liberal agreement specified a bill in 2023, meaning work was “still on track.” “It was not something we envisioned for this year,” he said.

The budget outlines about $ 6 billion in various housing initiatives that were mentioned in the agreement between the two parties.

The largest of these is the িং 4 billion over five years for the Housing Accelerator Fund, which focuses on increasing housing supply – a total of 100,000 net new housing units over the next five years. “To make housing more affordable, more housing needs to be created,” the budget said. The goal is to “encourage cities and towns that are moving forward to create more housing, as well as to ensure that municipalities are able to get the support they need to modernize and build new homes.”

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Although Liberals pledged 4 billion in the last election, two additional housing-related measures were not taken. The budget allocates $ 1.5 billion over two years to expand the Rapid Housing Initiative, which the government expects to create “at least 6,000 new affordable housing units.” An additional $ 475 million will go to Canada Housing Benefit to provide a “one-time payment of যারা 500 to those facing housing affordability challenges”.

Singh says there are $ 4 billion changes to the definition of affordability and indigenous housing that would not have happened without his team.

The NDP-Liberal agreement calls on the government to make a “significant additional investment” in indigenous housing, and the budget includes $ 4 billion in new funding over seven years that will go to Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Accelerate the work of closing the Indigenous Housing Gap ”between the Reserve and the Indigenous Community.

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“There has been a significant increase in housing for the indigenous community that would not have been there, but we have fought for it. We have fought for an additional 4 4 billion … apart from what the government is going to do,” Singh said.

The budget promises to reform rental financing initiatives to include an increased focus on affordability. Singh says his team’s ability to change the definition of affordability – from 80 percent of middle-income earners to 80 percent of market rent – would make a big difference.

“All that this government is going to invest in affordable housing will not result in affordable housing. Only that definition has significantly changed the whole picture of the affordability of the houses that are about to be built, ”said Singh.

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Also not incurred but included in the budget, and previously promised on the Liberal Platform, is the promise to move forward with a Home Buyers Bill of Rights, which may include measures to ensure the legal right of home buyers to inspect the home.

The budget also provides an undisclosed amount of 209.8 million for “increasing the assistance provided to communities for the registration, identification and commemoration of burial grounds in former boarding schools,” another priority included in the agreement.

A measure that was also included in the Liberal-NDP deal is expected to bring in government revenue. Banks and life insurance groups will “pay a one-time 15 percent tax on taxable income above $ 1 billion for the 2021 tax year,” the budget said. It is expected to bring in $ 4 billion over the next five years. The government is raising tax rates permanently for some banks and life insurance groups, which will bring in an additional $ 2 billion.

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“While many sectors continue to recover, Canada’s major financial institutions made significant profits during the epidemic and recovered faster than other parts of our economy – in part because of federal epidemic support for people and businesses that helped balance the balance sheets.” Some of Canada’s largest financial institutions, “the budget said. “The federal government is proposing two measures to ensure that large financial institutions help Canada’s larger recovery accordingly.”

Although not spent and included in the NDP-Liberal agreement, the budget mentions increased taxes for Canada’s richest people – which the NDP has been campaigning for year after year.

The budget states that 28 percent of gross income taxpayers above $ 400,000 pay a federal rate of 15 percent or less, making “significant use of deductions and tax credits.” It noted that “some middle-class Canadians are less than paid.” Liberals also promised to pay such taxes on their electoral platforms.

The budget promises to test a new minimum tax system, which it says will “go a long way in ensuring that all wealthy Canadians pay their fair share of taxes.” It said it would provide additional details of that measure in its financial update after this fall.