This afternoon, the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, the Honourable Karina Gould, tabled the 2024 Fall Economic Statement (FES) in the House of Commons.
This FES prioritizes investments to reduce everyday costs and increase the capital required for Canada’s industrial transition, contributing to Canada’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) advantage, and overcoming geopolitical risks and uncertainty.
Overall, federal deficit projections are $61.9 billion for 2023-24, decreasing to 42.8 billion, 37.4 billion in 2025-26, 27.9 billion in 2026-27, 29.4 billion in 2027-28, 23 billion in 2028-29. The deficit improves to 18.7 billion in 2029-30.
The FES outlines $24.2 billion in new funding, $17.4 billion of which will go towards an extension of the Accelerated Investment Incentive.
The Tax Break for All Canadians Act will be in place from December 14, 2024, to February 15, 2025, in which the Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST) will be removed from select items.
The government intends to amend the Income Tax Act to deliver the Canada Carbon Rebate rural top-up to more Canadians by making those living in census rural areas and small population centres that are within census metropolitan areas (CMAs) eligible, starting in April 2025.
The federal government also intends to spend $1.3 billion over six years to strengthen Canada’s border security.
The government plans to develop legislation to allow the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) to automatically file a tax return on behalf of certain lower-income Canadians, beginning as soon as the 2025 tax year.
Housing and Infrastructure
- $43.8 million over two years starting in 2025-26 to support the operations and
- The loan limit for the Canada Suite Loan Program will be doubled to $80,000 administered by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which will offer 15-year loan terms at a 2 percent interest rate.
- $50 million over two years starting in 2025-26 will be invested in the Affordable Housing Fund. This can be used by affordable housing providers to complete pre-development work.
- $50 million from the Affordable Housing Fund’s Rapid Housing Stream will be invested to build more women’s shelter spaces in 2025-26.
- An additional $600 million will be invested in the Canada Greener Homes Loan Program to deliver interest-free loans to support homeowners in reducing energy costs. This investment has a fiscal cost of $174.4 million over six years starting in 2024-25.
Labour
- Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) is preparing to launch an intake process for the Investments in Training equipment stream.
- ESDC will begin to implement its $90 million investment in the Apprenticeship Service in early 2025. This investment was originally announced in Budget 2024.
- Restrict the use of non-compete agreements to protect workers’ rights, promote labour mobility, and strengthen competition. Consultations on proposed legislative amendments will be launched to enact changes in early 2025.
Health Care
- A refundable tax credit for personal support workers will be introduced and will be modelled on the design of the tax credit for volunteer firefighters.
- Introduction of a similar standard-setting framework as the Red Seal Trade Program to enable the mobility of health care workers across Canada.
Clean Economy
- A Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit will be available to provincial and territorial governments that:some text
- Publicly commit to publish an energy roadmap to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
- Publicly request that provincial and territorial Crown corporations pass on the benefits of the Clean Electricity tax credit to electricity ratepayers in their jurisdiction.
- The government will backstop up to $500 million in enriched nuclear fuel purchase contracts from the U.S. or other allied countries and provide $4 million over 10 years to Natural Resources Canada starting in 2024-25 to administer this program.
Natural Resources
- As previously announced, the government is accelerating economic growth, increasing power generation, and making supply chains more secure. The government is building a regulatory framework that yields timely and predictable decisions, aligns economic and environmental priorities, and meaningfully engages with Indigenous communities.
- The federal government will amend the Physical Activities Regulations, which sets out the types of projects that are subject to the Impact Assessment Act, to advance the principle of “one project, one review.”some text
- This will include only physical activities (classes of projects that are subject to a federal impact assessment) that carry high potential for impacts in areas of federal jurisdiction, consistent with the revised Act.
- This will remove some physical activities so as to rely to a greater degree on federal lifecycle regulators, such as solely having the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's process apply to certain brownfield nuclear projects, as opposed to also requiring a federal impact assessment.
- This will focus the scope of impact assessments of provincially regulated projects, like mines, exclusively on effects in federal areas of jurisdiction. This will expedite assessments and reduce duplication with provincial and territorial assessments, thereby improving investor certainty and review timelines.
- As announced in Budget 2024, following consultation with Indigenous Peoples, establish a Crown Consultation coordinator to ensure meaningful Crown consultation with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities on the issuance of federal authorizations, to improve efficiency and reduce consultation fatigue.
Indigenous Loan Guarantee
Indigenous groups can submit applications on a continuous, rolling basis for loan guarantees between $20 million and $1 billion. Applications will be reviewed as they are received and are not subject to a particular timeframe constraint.
In consultation with the Canada Indigenous Loan Guarantee Corporation, Natural Resources Canada will provide support during the first two years by assessing section 35 eligibility and delivering capacity funding for investment analysis and due diligence.
Eligibility Criteria:
- Only Indigenous groups with recognized section 35 rights, or their wholly owned subsidiaries, are eligible to apply.
- Projects must have geographic relevance that impacts section 35 rights of the applicant.
- Ensure diverse economic opportunities by being sector agnostic across natural resources and energy projects, including, but not limited to, investment in projects in electricity generation and transmission, carbon management, low carbon fuel production, pipeline infrastructure, oil and gas production, minerals and mining, and forestry.
- Thresholds will be periodically reviewed and adjusted to reflect sector-specific dynamics.
- Applicants must confirm that investments will be made into financially ring-fenced assets or operations, which will be subject to confirmatory diligence.
The Canada Indigenous Loan Guarantee Corporation will prioritize applications based on the following considerations:
- Investments in projects that are more advanced in their development and funding will be prioritized. some text
- As part of prioritizing projects with the greatest potential for economic reconciliation, applicants awaiting regulatory and permitting approvals for their projects are encouraged to apply once approvals have been secured.
- Investments must demonstrate an ability to generate stable cash flow, sufficient to repay the acquisition loans on a non-guaranteed basis in order to further economic reconciliation objectives. some text
- Projects should be able to demonstrate predictable and stable cash flow with instruments such as power purchase agreements, delivery contracts, and offtake agreements.
Other Measures
- The Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs will lead a review of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement.
- The government will consider implementing conditions on major federal transfers to provinces and territories and require the removal of barriers to interprovincial trade and labour.
- The Canada Consumer-Driven Banking Framework will be launched in early 2026.
- The federal government announced its intent to bring forward legislation to exempt the Canada Disability Benefit from being included as income under the Income Tax Act.
- The federal government announced it is considering legislative measures to compel payment processors to fully pass credit card transaction fee savings onto small businesses.
