Liberals need support to pass new spending, opposition already dismissing the new plan

By Michael Ranger, News Staff

The liberals would need support from at least one opposition party to pass the $25 billion in new spending unveiled in Monday’s economic update.

The bill to implement measures of the economic statement will be tabled as early as this week but this doesn’t leave much time to pass the bill. The House of Commons will be rising for the winter on Dec. 11.

Federal opposition parties are already dismissing the new plan, hinting they may reject it. This could set the stage for another confidence crisis that could eventually lead to an election.

The Trudeau government is promising new spending to help Canadian businesses and workers weather the COVID-19 winter to come.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s fall economic update includes a proposal to send extra child benefit payments to families in the new year. As well as bringing the wage subsidy back to 75 per cent of business payroll taxes.

The economic update does carry a massive deficit, spending up to $400 billion more than what the government collects in taxes and other revenue.

Conservative leader Erin O’Toole is concerned the statement does not explicitly include a plan for vaccine delivery and without it there can be no long-term plan for economic recovery. He says his party will likely not support that.

“As you know for weeks we’ve been asking about the plan for vaccines,” says O’Toole. “That’s what our economy needs.”

Trudeau countered this claim and told the CBC that Canada will have the best range of potential vaccines and more doses per capita than any other country.

RELATED: Health Canada considers 4th vaccine, Canadians not worried about having to wait

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is also suggesting his party will vote against the update. He says the plan doesn’t go far enough when it comes to child-care or pharmacare. Singh also wanted to see more done to tax the richest Canadian companies and individuals.

“This liberal government looks like they are unwilling to make the wealthiest pay their fair share” says Singh. “Unwilling to go after the pandemic profiteering, the excess profits made by large corporations.”

The fall update has the Trudeau government proposing millions of dollars in new spending as a down payment on a planned national child-care system that the Liberals say will be outlined in next spring’s budget.

They are also proposing in their fiscal update to spend $420 million in grants and bursaries to help provinces and territories train and retain qualified early-childhood educators as well as spending $20 million over five years to build a child-care secretariat to guide federal policy work.

The money is designed to lay the foundation for what is likely going to be a big-money promise in the coming budget.

Current federal spending on child care expires near the end of the decade, but the Liberals are proposing now to keep the money flowing, starting with $870 million a year in 2028.

With files from the Canadian Press.

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