Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will present her economic statement on Tuesday, which is expected to address housing and the cost of living.
This presentation comes at a time when the Liberal government is struggling to regain the trust of Canadians unhappy with the rising cost of living in the country.
However, given the government’s financial resources, Ms Freeland tried to lower expectations.
“We need to make sure our investments give Canadians what they need, but we also need to do so in a fiscally responsible framework,” she told reporters Thursday. We won’t be able to do everything.
The minister was taciturn about the content of the statement and contented herself with repeating that it was about housing and the cost of living.
Last August, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced at the end of a two-day meeting of his Council of Ministers that combating rising costs of living would be a top priority.
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Justin Trudeau has announced that tackling the rising cost of living is his top priority.
Photo: The Canadian Press / Darryl Dyck
Since then, the federal government has already announced a number of measures, including scrapping GST on the construction of new rental housing and transferring surplus federal land and buildings to developers.
Freeland said the government is looking at ways to make more federal land available and wants to address the problem of short-term rentals that are putting pressure on housing availability.
Tim Richter, co-chair of the National Housing Council, an organization that advises the federal housing minister, predicts the Liberals will wait until the spring budget to announce their key policies.
My impression is that the Government will announce a number of measures between the Autumn Economic Statement and the Budget. In this budget, the Liberals’ main focus will be on housing and homelessness, stresses Mr. Richter, who believes the statement could provide a foretaste of future policy.
The cost of living is currently an unavoidable topic on the federal political scene.
Rents and mortgages have risen dramatically. Low-income Canadians struggle to make ends meet. Some speakers warn of a situation that is pushing people onto the streets.
Ray Sullivan, executive director of the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, wants to increase the number of social housing units in the country through investment, but doesn’t expect such a measure to be announced Tuesday.
I will see what measures will make it possible to move forward in solving this serious political problem, namely the housing shortage.
inflation
Several observers want the federal government to not overspend to avoid fueling inflation and to help the Bank of Canada lower its key interest rate more quickly.
Rebekah Young, an economist at Scotiabank, would prefer the government to address reducing inflation as it is the main problem for a large portion of the population.
This should be at the top of the priority list. Federal and provincial tax authorities need to form a team to curb inflation, says Ms. Young.
The federal government recently announced that $500 million in funds for travel and professional services had been redirected and eliminated from the 2023-2024 budgets of numerous government departments.
Tyler Meredith, former director of strategy and economic planning at Freeland, says the government will want to signal to Canadians and financial markets that it will rein in spending to achieve that goal.
This is the quickest way to help Canadians in difficult times, he claims.
In the meantime, Mr. Meredith said the government can take steps to ease the financial burden on Canadians.
We could act on competition in the food sector, he adds. He also wonders whether the government will follow through on its threat to tax grocery stores if they don’t stabilize prices.