Liberals propose $25 billion in new spending

The federal Liberals are proposing $25 billion in new spending to help Canadian businesses and workers make it through a COVID-19 winter and vowing tens of billions more to help the country recover once the pandemic passes.

The government’s fall economic update proposes to send extra child-benefit payments to families next year as well as to put cash into skills training and to create new jobs.

For businesses, the government wants to bring the wage subsidy back to 75 per cent of business payroll costs and extend the business rent subsidy to mid-March.

There is also money for long-term care facilities and the stock of the nation’s personal protective equipment, while dropping federal sales tax on face masks and shields.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s update makes clear the measures will be removed once the economy improves, although the timing is tied to the path of the pandemic.

The cost to date has the federal deficit reaching $381.6 billion this year, but the government’s math says it could close in on $400 billion if widespread lockdowns return in the coming weeks.

Freeland’s update largely adds cash to existing programs, but tees up work already underway to craft a spring budget. She said it will focus on an economic recovery that will include a three-year stimulus plan worth up to $100 billion, depending on the twin paths of the economy and the pandemic.

“If it’s pre-committed and locked in, the risk is you overstimulate the economy, whereas this seems more that if things go the other way, there’s more to come, which will support growth,” said RBC chief economist Craig Wright.

While the details have yet to be worked out, Freeland said the stimulus plan will include timelimited spending on things like a green economy bio-manufacturing - the industry that makes vaccines and medication.

Freeland argued some of the down-payments on that plan are in Monday’s update, including proposed grants for homeowners to make energyefficiency upgrades.

Perrin Beatty, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce said the economic statement provides some short-term help, but it still “presents a plan to create a plan” for recovery.

There is no specific “fiscal anchor,” a measurement to moor government spending to keep it from drifting off target, guiding the plan. In its place are economic indicators like the unemployment rate and hours worked that the Liberals will use to decide when spending can ease off or when the taps need to be opened wider.

“As we build our growth plan, and as we deploy it, the measure we’re going to be looking at to see if we’ve got the job done is really around jobs,” Freeland told reporters.

Rebekah Young, director of fiscal and provincial economics with Scotiabank, said the scant details about long-term plans will likely create unease in financial markets.