April 12, 2022                      Cambridge, Ontario

Through Budget 2022: A Plan to Grow Our Economy and Make Life More Affordable, the Government of Canada is making targeted and responsible investments to create good jobs, grow our economy, and build a Canada where nobody gets left behind.

Today, the Minister of Transport, the Honourable Omar Alghabra, highlighted tax cuts for small businesses and noted how this measure will help them to grow their businesses, hire more workers, and make life more affordable.

Budget 2022 proposes to:

• Phase out access to the small business tax rate more gradually, with access to be fully phased out when taxable capital reaches $50 million, rather than at $15 million.
• Provide $30 million over four years, starting in 2022-23, to build upon the success of the Coordinated Accessible National Health Network, and expand it nationally to Quebec, the territories, and Indigenous communities.
• Continue consultations to reduce credit card transaction fees in a way that benefits small businesses, protects consumers, and lowers the cost of fees for merchants.
• Introduce amendments to the Special Import Measures Act and the Canadian International Trade Tribunal Act to strengthen Canada’s trade remedy system by better ensuring unfairly traded goods are subject to duties, and increasing the participation of workers.
• Create the Employee Ownership Trust—a new, dedicated type of trust under the Income Tax Act to support employee ownership.

The first pillar of the budget is investing in Canadians and making life more affordable. Budget 2022 housing measures will put Canada on the path to double housing construction over the next decade; help Canadians save for and buy their first home; ban foreign investment in Canadian housing; and curb unfair practices that make housing more expensive for Canadians. Budget 2022 also invests in ensuring Canadian workers have the skills they need for the good-paying jobs of today and tomorrow, and will make it easier for the skilled immigrants that our economy needs to make Canada their home. The Budget makes further significant investments in affordable child care, in our public health care system, and in advancing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

Second, Budget 2022 invests in economic growth and innovation—the key to Canada’s long-term prosperity. This includes launching a new world-leading Canada Growth Fund that will attract tens of billions of dollars in private investment in Canadian industries and Canadian jobs, and a new innovation and investment agency that will help drive productivity and growth across our economy. The budget also proposes to implement Canada’s first Critical Minerals Strategy—one that will create thousands of good jobs and capitalize on a growing need for the minerals used in everything from phones to electric cars. Measures also include steps to build more resilient supply chains, and to cut taxes for Canada’s growing small businesses.

The third pillar of Budget 2022 is investing in a clean economy. To help Canadians and Canadian businesses benefit from the global transition to a clean economy, Budget 2022 includes new incentives for the development of clean technologies and carbon capture, utilization, and storage. In addition to further investments to protect our land, lakes, and oceans, the government will also make it more affordable for Canadians to purchase zero-emission vehicles, build and expand a national network of zero-emission vehicle charging stations, and make new investments in clean energy.

Canada entered the pandemic with the lowest net debt-to-GDP ratio of all G7 countries—an advantage that has since increased relative to other countries. Canada has seen the best jobs recovery in the G7, and as of March 2022, has recovered 115 per cent of the jobs lost at the height of the pandemic, with an unemployment rate that sits at just 5.3 per cent—the lowest rate on record since 1976. With Budget 2022, Canada will maintain this leading position, and maintain its fiscally responsible approach to economic growth and to building an economy that works for everyone. Crucially, it upholds the government’s fiscal anchor—a declining debt-to-GDP ratio and the unwinding of COVID-19-related deficits, which will ensure that Canada’s finances remain sustainable in the long-term.