Federal Budget 2022 Highlights: Affordable Housing, Transit & Infrastructure Investments

The Government of Canada released its Federal 2022 Budget yesterday.I'm pleased to see investments in affordable housing, transit and infrastructure. We get closer to affordable and attainable housing when all levels of government work together towards it -- not one level of government can accomplish this on its own. I'm also pleased to see advancements in child care facilities -- it's great to see the commitment of $10 per day child care, but if there are no spaces available, families cannot take advantage of it.Burlington City Council recently unanimously approved a free menstrual product pilot project in Burlington’s public washrooms, so I'm glad to see other levels of government following suit with the federal Menstrual Equity Fund that will help make menstrual products available to Canadians in need. It was also great to see in the federal budget a commitment to accelerate retrofits and build more net-zero homes in communities across Canada so that people can save on energy bills. We're doing some of this same work in Burlington with Council recently unanimously approving giving staff the greenlight to develop a long program for home energy upgrades.Further down, you'll find some highlights from the Federal 2022 Budget -- and click the links below for:

• Federal Government News Release;
• Federal Government 2022 Budget; and
• Minister of Finance, the Hon. Chrystia Freeland's Remarks

FEDERAL 2022 BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS:

• In Budget 2022, the government makes targeted and responsible investments to create jobs and prosperity today, and build a stronger economic future for all Canadians. These include:
  • Investing in Canadians and Making Life More Affordable
  • Investing in Economic Growth and Innovation
  • Investing in a Clean Economy
• $452.3 billion in new spending on projected revenue of $408.4 billion for a deficit of $52.8 billion. The debt to GDP ratio is pegged at 45.1 per cent.

Municipal HighlightsBuilding Affordable Housing:  Every order of government has a role to play in building more homes and making housing more affordable for Canadians. Provinces and territories oversee the frameworks guiding land use, planning, and their targets for increasing the number of new homes. Municipalities implement policies in a manner best suited to their communities.

• To help double our rate of construction over the next ten years, make our housing and building stock more environmentally friendly, and address homelessness, the federal government is proposing a range of measures that will:
  • Incentivize cities to build more homes and create denser, more sustainable neighbourhoods to increase housing supply;
  • Support those in need of affordable housing by building new affordable units faster;
  • Create a new generation of co-op housing through the largest investment in new co-op housing in more than 30 years;
  • Accelerate retrofits and build more net-zero homes in communities across Canada so that people can save on energy bills; and
  • Support those experiencing or at risk of homelessness by continuing to provide doubled annual funding for Reaching Home; building new affordable units for the most vulnerable; continuing work to end chronic homelessness; and introducing a new program to combat veteran homelessness
• $4 billion over the next five years to launch the new Housing Accelerator Fund in the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation to help cities and municipalities create more affordable housing. The Housing Accelerator Fund will have a flexible single application system, and will still allow municipalities to access other related programs. The federal government will ensure that the program also takes into account smaller and rural communities that are growing quickly, like those in Atlantic Canada and northern Ontario.
• $1.5 billion over two years to the CMHC’s Rapid Housing Initiative to create 6,000 new affordable housing units with at least one-quarter of the funding dedicated to women-focused projects.

Using Infrastructure Funding to Encourage More Home ConstructionA coordinated approach, involving all orders of government, is required to ensure public spending is working to build more of the homes Canadians need.To this end, Budget 2022 signals the government’s intention to create flexibility within federal infrastructure programs to tie access to infrastructure funding to actions by provinces, territories, and municipalities to increase housing supply where it makes sense to do so. This flexibility would be included within the Canada Community-Building Fund, when its current administrative agreements with provinces and territories are renewed; and other future infrastructure programs.Together with the new Housing Accelerator Fund, this represents nearly $43 billion in new and existing federal funding over the next ten years that will be leveraged to encourage the construction of more homes for Canadians across the country.Leveraging Transit Funding to Build More HomesThe pandemic has had an extraordinary impact on public transit ridership and the revenues that municipalities count on. On March 25, 2022, the government tabled a bill to authorize up to $750 million in 2021-22 to support municipalities as they address their public transit shortfalls. To increase the impact of this investment, the proposed funding will be conditional on provincial and territorial governments committing to match the federal contribution and to accelerate their work with their municipalities to build more homes for Canadians.Infrastructure investmentsBudget 2022 signals the government’s intention to accelerate the deadline for provinces to fully commit their remaining funding under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program to priority projects to March 31, 2023. As a measure of fiscal prudence, any uncommitted funds after this date will be reallocated to other priorities. The federal government will work closely with provinces to support them in expediting project submissions.The existing deadline of March 31, 2025 will remain unchanged for the territories.Budget 2022 also proposes to extend the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program’s construction deadline from October 2027 to October 2033.To support this extension, Budget 2022 proposes to adjust the program’s funding profile so that funding is available when needed. This extension recognizes delays caused by the pandemic, and will ensure that provinces and territories can fund priority projects.Other highlights:

• $625 million over four years, starting in 2023-24, for child care, to help the provinces and territories build new facilities and make new investments. The new funding is a follow up to the various federal child-care agreements with the provinces and territories after they raised concerns that non-profit and public providers were facing soaring real estate and building material costs.
• In 2022-23, the Canada Health Transfer will provide provinces and territories with $45.2 billion in support—an increase of 4.8 per cent over the baseline for 2021-22.
• $25 million over two years, starting in 2022-23, for Women and Gender Equality Canada to establish a national pilot project for a Menstrual Equity Fund that will help make menstrual products available to Canadians in need
• $1 billion over five years, starting in 2022-23, to create an independent federal innovation and investment agency. The measure is designed to spur economic growth and address the fact that Canada is ranked last in the G7 in spending on research and development by business.
• The defence budget got new money with more than $8 billion pledged over five years to better equip the Canadian Armed Forces, reinforce cybersecurity and support a culture of change. The budget contained no road map on whether this would be enough to boost Canada’s defence spending to the NATO target of two per cent of GDP, as the alliance works to bolster Europe following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• Up to $1 billion in new loan resources for the Ukrainian government through the International Monetary Fund to help keep its embattled government operating.
• Tax-free savings accounts that would give first-time home buyers the chance to save up to $40,000. Contributions would be tax-deductible and withdrawals to buy a first home would not be taxed. The program is expected to provide $725 million in support over five years.
• $4 billion over six years, starting in 2021-22, to remove systemic barriers to First Nations children receiving services in health, education and social services. The funds are part of the government’s commitment to Jordan’s Principle, which started in 2016.
• $5.3 billion over five years starting in 2022-23 and $1.7 billion ongoing to Health Canada to provide dental care to Canadians as a result of the Liberal-NDP agreement. The plan will start with children under 12 in 2022 at an initial cost of $300 million. The program will expand to cover Canadians under 18 years old, seniors and people with disabilities in 2023. The program, which is to be fully implemented by 2025, is limited to families with incomes of less than $90,000 a year. For those with an income of less than $70,000, no co-payments will be required.
• $1.7 billion over five years starting in 2022-23 to help make zero-emission vehicles more affordable for people. The Canadian Infrastructure Bank will spend $500 million over five years to build infrastructure to support the 1,500 charging stations that the government has promised to build throughout Canada.
• $547 million over four years starting in 2022-23 to help businesses upgrade their fleets to zero-emission vehicles.