Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland released the federal budget that is titled Fairness for Every Generation on April 16, 2024, against a backdrop of Canadians facing the significant challenge of elevated costs of living. The budget expects a deficit of $40.0 billion for 2023-24 and forecasts deficits of $39.8 billion for 2024-25, and $38.9 billion for 2025-26.
This year’s Budget targeted housing, affordability, and economic growth. Here are the key highlights
Taxes
Budget 2024 proposes an increase in taxes on capital gains on the wealthiest 0.13 per cent. the portion of capital gains on which tax is paid—for capital gains for individuals with more than $250,000 in capital gains in a year will increase from one-half to two-thirds. Individuals will continue to only pay tax on 50 per cent of any capital gains up to $250,000 per year. The inclusion rate will also increase to two-thirds for all capital gains realized by corporations and trusts. For 99.87 per cent of Canadians, personal income taxes on capital gains will not increase.
Homes
Budget 2024 lays out a strategy to unlock 3.87 million new homes by 2031. This includes a minimum of 2 million net new homes, on top of 1.87 million homes already expected to be built by 2031. Federal actions will support at least 1.2 million new homes, and the federal government is calling on all orders of government to build at least 800,000 more homes by 2031.
Building Homes on Public Lands with the new Public Lands for Homes Plan, the federal government will use all tools available to convert public lands to housing (such as unused or underused office towers or parking lots), including leasing, acquiring other public lands for housing, and retaining ownership, whenever possible.
30-Year Amortizations for First-Time Buyers Purchasing New Builds, with insured mortgages, to make it easier for younger Canadians to enter the housing market by enabling lower mortgage payments and get those first keys to their first home, while they climb the income ladder.
Increasing the Home Buyers’ Plan from $35,000 to $60,000 to enable first-time home buyers to use the tax benefits of an RRSP to save up to $25,000 more for their down payment faster, available to first-time buyers after April 16, 2024.
A Canadian Renters’ Bill of Rights, to be developed with provinces and territories, to help protect renters from steep rent hikes and renovictions, standardize leases, and require landlords to share rent price history with potential new tenants.
For younger generation
Supporting young entrepreneurs by proposing $60 million for Futurpreneur Canada, which has already helped over 17,700 young entrepreneurs to launch more than 13,900 businesses across the country. This renewed investment will enable an estimated 6,250 additional businesses owned by young people.
Launching a new Canada Disability Benefit to supplement provincial and territorial benefits to increase the financial well-being of over 600,000 working-age persons with disabilities.
Amending the Telecommunications Act to better allow Canadians to renew, switch, or cancel home internet, home phone, and cell phone plans while avoiding unnecessary fees.
Enhancing free and affordable bank account options and capping non-sufficient funds fees charged by banks at $10.
Securing Canada’s artificial intelligence advantage by investing $2 billion to launch a new AI Compute Access Fund and Canadian Sovereign Compute Strategy to help Canadian researchers, start-ups, and scale-up businesses access the computational power they need to compete.
A new 10 per cent Electric Vehicle Supply Chain investment tax credit for businesses that invest across key segments of the electric vehicle supply chain, on the cost of buildings
