Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland delivers the budget in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on April 19, 2021.BLAIR GABLE/Reuters
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Readers react: Liberals target child care, COVID-19 relief in a wave of new spending, as deficit projected to hit $354-billion
I’m doing about 400 tax returns this season. It absolutely disgusts me to see the government waste in the form of overpayments of CERB, etc. From these returns, I have an insight that most individuals wouldn’t. The COVID-19 benefits were supposed to fill in a gap, not to create wealth for 15- to 18-year-olds living at home, for starters. The Canadian economy absolutely does not need this. The majority of people collecting COVID-19 benefits do not need them. And even with the knowledge of this, the government continues to hand out money.
Look at the stats for proof. Unemployment is normal, growth in GDP is good. There is no free money. If you continue to hand it out, people will take it. What is the ultimate goal? –overinvested
Budgets balance themselves... ❤️–Dcdc4
Unbelievable. $354-billion deficit. Unimaginable. We are so screwed. –FunnyBunny3
Lots and lots of spending, but no references as to how these debts will be financed. Perhaps that reality comes after the election. –HeavyJetCaptain
What if you ran your finances like Justin Trudeau has run Canada’s? –Got It Right
Well I can see that this is not a budget for my demographic. That would be pampered baby boomers who are passengers in the last car on the “gravy train.”
No, this is meant for suburban families forced into the absolute need for two incomes to pay the astronomical real estate prices in our largest cities. A necessity, by the way, because these self-same politicians have failed to find a solution to that particular problem. Look, here’s a little money for the family to make up for the obscene costs of housing that family.
But they can chill now with legalized cannabis … so there’s that … while they contemplate the implications of 400,000 new immigrants each year. Which will further exacerbate the aforementioned housing crisis until some future politician announces measures to ameliorate that.
So new policy initiatives to partially compensate for past policy failure. Do you now understand how politics works?
So no, not much in this budget pour moi. But I’ll be long gone, along with these politicians, when the bill comes due. Then it will be those suburban parents, and their children’s chance, to get on the gravy train which sadly will have left the station decades earlier. –DRYBURGH6
Well, I think it’s safe to say our government will be running deficits forever. Inflation here we come.
$6-billion a year for a national child care program isn’t as much as you would think. After the administration costs are taken out of that, we might see a small number of actual families benefiting. –r2marsharye
I have spent my whole life fretting about the debt, worrying about passing it on to my kids. If the country is okay with this, then let’s do it. If young people are okay with it, then let’s go big. I can always move somewhere else if everything goes in the gutter. –MikeT
I don’t know what I will do with my increase in Old Age Security. I don’t need the money. Put it in a TFSA. –NETNUB
No one will see their quality of life lowered from deficit spending. More likely we’ll see our standard of life increase over time. This is what governments are meant to do. Time to stop listening to economists who all went to the same school. –Peacechild
This is a great and historic day for children and their parents who are desperate for high-quality, low-cost daycare, but also for all Canadians as everyone will benefit from economic growth.
Bravo to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. It’s especially impressive that 50 per cent of costs will kick in next year. This is what’s needed now –Westerlies44
Luckily for the Liberals, the Conservative-friendly premiers have mishandled the pandemic so badly that there is little evidence of the Conservative claim to be the more accountable and responsible alternative national government. –Jimbo5
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