Federal budget met with criticism by N.L. labour leaders
Budget 2024 will see $52.9 billion in new spending over five years
The 2024 federal budget is one dedicated to helping every generation get ahead, the federal government said Tuesday.
Titled “Fairness for Every Generation,” the 400-page document was tabled in Ottawa by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, labour leaders and members of the NDP watched Freeland’s speech from the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) office in St. John’s.
The room was full of mixed reactions as people listened to Freeland and examined the budget’s highlights, focusing on housing, affordability, and economic growth.
Federal NDP president Mary Shortall said the budget would make people’s lives a little better, while others were critical of some of the federal government’s decisions.
Key contents of the budget include:
• $52.9 billion in new spending over five years.
• $8.5 billion in new spending for housing.
• Funding to help build more childcare spaces to expand the Canada-wide early learning and childcare system and deliver $10-a-day childcare.
• Reforms to the Canada Disability Benefits Act.
• Tax hike on capital gains.
• First steps of national pharamcare program introduced.
JOB CUTS
Mark Power, the regional vice-president of PSAC NL, said he wanted to see the federal government fund public services. Instead, public-service employees were met with thousands of cuts.
“There’s a lot of concern so far in terms of the number that the government has announced, 5,000 cuts to publicsector workers in the federal sphere,” Power said.
The details of when and where the cuts will take place are unclear. Power expects it to cause unease among workers and Canadians who rely on the services those workers provide.
“Whenever there’s been thousands of cuts announced, there’s been a lot of nervousness,” he said.
Jessica Mccormick, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour, was not pleased with the job cuts, either.
“There are actual people behind those jobs who will be impacted,” said Mccormick.
The Federation of Labour also hoped to see programs that would pressure large grocery chains to help with cost of living and employment insurance reform, which the federal government didn’t pursue.
HOUSING, CHILDCARE
Still, Mccormick said she welcomes some of the budget’s spending on housing and childcare.
“(There are) some good investments in housing which are very important to union members and working people,” she said.
“We did see more money for childcare and this is a very important issue to parents and Early Childhood Educators (ECES) in Newfoundland and Laborador. That additional funding, we hope, will be invested well in this province to both recruit and retain ECES and make sure we have enough spaces to meet the demands here in this province.”
Shortall said she was happy to see the capital gain taxes in the 2024 budget, but the country is still dealing with affordability issues.
“The biggest letdown in this budget was the affordability issues and that there have been lots of solutions put forward from the NDP and from others that they start to address the real causes of inflation, which is the excessive profits from corporations, and the Liberal government is not wanting to do that,” she said.
DISABILITY BENEFIT
As Freeland outlined an increase in Canada’s disability benefit, Shortall shook her head — $200 per month is the new maximum benefit.
“People with disabilities have been waiting a long, long time to get some relief because they’re living in abject poverty,” Shortall said.
“Six billion dollars in six years, really? When you talk about the number of people who will depend on that in order to just be able to afford to live and that they’re the most vulnerable and marginalized in our society, it’s shocking,” she said.
The budget’s positive for Shortall was more health-care assessibility.
“To be on board with things like dental care, contraceptives for women, diabetes. For people that’s huge in this province. We have a lot of people who need that,” she said.
GEN Z, MILLENNIALS
Generation Z and millennials were the target audience in this year’s federal budget.
Memorial University of Newfoundland Student Union (MUNSU) director of campaigns Jawad Chowdhury said the budget is a step in the right direction.
“There’s lots of grants. There is help for rents with students. There’s a permanent removal of interest from federal education loans. It’s definitely a step in the right direction, but at the end of the day, it’s a lot of grants and loans.
There is still an added cost to education that has not been addressed. Students would like to see more in terms of grocery prices, internet, and data prices,” Chowdhury said.
Canadian Federation of Students for Newfoundland and Labrador (CSF-NL) chairperson Mary Feltham said she appreciates the steps to make sure life is more affordable for students and everyone, but there’s not much in the budget for students in N.L.
“Looking at the budget briefly, there didn’t seem to be much for Newfoundland and Labrador. It was all very much focused on the mainland and the other steps that are more broad are very focused on only Canadian students,” Feltham said.
Both hope the provincial government will work to make life more affordable for students in N.L. after the tabling of the federal budget.
“The federal government is definitely pushing for more accessible education and we think our province we can learn a lot from that sort of push and make education accessible here,” Chowdhury said.