Government of Canada announces legislation to ensure fairness for every generation

Today, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, tabled the Notice of Ways and Means Motion to introduce the Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1. This legislation will advance many of the government’s key priorities in Budget 2024: Fairness for Every Generation.

• Enhancing the Home Buyers’ Plan to help first-time home buyers at a time when saving for a down payment is more and more difficult. The government is increasing the withdrawal limit from $35,000 to $60,000 and temporarily adding three years to the grace period before repayments to an RRSP are required.
• Cracking Down on Short-Term Rentals to unlock more homes for Canadians to live in by denying income tax deductions on income earned from short-term rentals that do not comply with provincial or local restrictions.
• Banning Foreign Buyers of Canadian homes for an additional two years, until January 1, 2027, to ensure homes are used for Canadians to live in, not as a speculative asset class for foreign investors.

Measures in the legislation to strengthen Canada’s social safety net:

• Launching the new National School Food Program as early as the 2024-25 school year to help 400,000 more kids get the food they need through existing school food programs.
• Launching the new Canada Disability Benefit to provide financial support to persons with disabilities, with payments starting in July 2025.
• Making it easier to save for your child’s education by introducing automatic enrollment in the Canada Learning Bond, to ensure all low-income families receive the support they need for their children’s future.
• Implementing the Canada Health Transfer 5 per cent growth guarantee to help provinces and territories deliver better universal public health care.
• Expanding the Canada Student Loan Forgiveness program to pharmacists, dentists, dental hygienists, midwives, early childhood educators, teachers, social workers, personal support workers, physiotherapists, and psychologists who choose to work in rural and remote communities. This builds on existing loan forgiveness for doctors and nurses.

Measures in the legislation to help make life more affordable for Canadians:

• Making it easier to find better deals on internet, home phone, and cell phone plans by amending the Telecommunications Act to better allow Canadians to renew or switch between plans and to increase consumer choice to help them find a deal that works best for them.
• Cracking Down on Auto Theft by providing law enforcement and prosecutors with the tools they need to protect Canadians from having their cars stolen. Specifically, this includes more robust criminal offences related to auto theft and new restrictions on the possession and distribution of devices used to steal cars.
• Launching Canada’s Consumer-Driven Banking Framework to provide Canadians and small businesses with safe and secure access to more financial services and products.
• Doing More to Crack Down on Predatory Lending by strengthening enforcement against criminal rates of interest to protect vulnerable Canadians from harmful illegal lenders, such as loan sharks.
• Doubling the Volunteer Firefighters Tax Credit and the Search and Rescue Volunteers Tax Creditfrom $3,000 to $6,000, in recognition of the essential roles and sacrifices of these volunteers to keep Canadians safe.
• Enhancing the Canadian journalism labour tax credit to ensure that, as the media market changes, journalists are fairly compensated, by increasing the annual labour cost limit from $55,000 to $85,000 per employee, and temporarily increasing the tax credit rate from 25 per cent to 35 per cent.

Measures in the legislation to grow the economy in a way that’s shared by all:

• Launching the $5 billion Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program to unlock access to capital for Indigenous communities, create economic opportunities, and ensure Indigenous Peoples share in growth in a way that works for them.
• Delivering two more major economic investment tax credits, to attract more private investment, create more good-paying jobs, and grow the economy:
  • The 30 per cent Clean Technology Manufacturing investment tax credit; and,
  • The up to 40 per cent Clean Hydrogen investment tax credit.

  With the support and collaboration of Parliamentarians, the government is determined to pass the Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1, to deliver investments in Canadians as soon as possible.

  Quotes

  “Our plan is about ensuring fairness for every generation. We are moving with purpose to build more homes, faster. We are helping make life more affordable. And, we are driving the kind of economic growth that will ensure every generation of Canadians can reach their full potential. We are doing this because a fair chance to build a good, middle class life has always been the promise of Canada.”

  - The Honourable Chrystia Freeland,
  Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance

  Quick facts

  • The Notice of Ways and Means Motion includes all tax and non-tax measures that the government will introduce in the Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1. The government intends to introduce legislation to implement further measures from Budget 2024 on a priority basis.

  Associated links

  • Notice of Ways and Means Motion to introduce a bill entitled Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1
  • Budget 2024: Fairness for Every Generation
  • Address by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
  • 2023 Fall Economic Statement

  Contacts

  Media may contact:

  Katherine Cuplinskas
  Press Secretary and Senior Communications Advisor
  Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
  Katherine.Cuplinskas@fin.gc.ca

  Media Relations
  Department of Finance Canada
  mediare@fin.gc.ca
  613-369-4000