Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland rises during Question Period in Ottawa, on Oct. 1. Freeland has said she and her team are working on a fall economic update but a date has not yet been released.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Canadians are divided over whether the Liberal government should target specific age groups for new spending in the fall economic update, with more than a quarter of respondents to a new poll saying there should be no new spending at all.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has said she and her team are working on a fall economic update but a date has not yet been released.
The release of the annual document will carry heightened political importance this year in light of the increasing instability of the minority Parliament as the NDP is no longer promising to provide automatic support for the Liberals on confidence votes.
In particular, the update could be a venue for the Liberals to respond to calls from opposition parties for increased benefits for seniors.
Respondents to the Nanos Research survey were asked, in the context of the coming fall update, which age group should be the government’s top priority for any new spending. They were provided a choice of four age groups, as well as the option to say no new spending or unsure.
The most popular response, at 26 per cent, was that there should be no new spending. Tied for second at 19 per cent were young Canadians aged 18 to 34 and older Canadians aged 55 and older. Middle-aged Canadians aged 35 to 54 were the choice of 13 per cent, followed by 10 per cent who said children aged 18 and under. The remaining 13 per cent said they were unsure.
“The survey suggests generation conflict on spending,” said Nik Nanos, chief data scientist for Nanos Research, pointing to the results showing 30 per cent of Canadians 55 and older said there should not be any new spending, while only 15 per cent of younger Canadians aged 18 to 34 shared that view.
“What is interesting about spending priorities is that the most popular response among about one in four Canadians is that there should be no new spending,” he said.
The survey of 1,058 Canadian adults was conducted between Sept. 29 and Oct. 2, as part of an omnibus survey. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
The survey’s economic questions were commissioned by The Globe and Mail.
The Bloc Québécois has said it is willing to support the Liberals on key votes if the government agrees to pass two bills into law, including C-319, a Bloc bill that would boost benefits by 10 per cent for seniors aged 65 to 74.
The Bloc recently escalated this pressure by forcing a vote on a motion calling on the government “to take the necessary steps” to ensure a royal recommendation is granted to the bill. A private member’s bill that involves spending tax dollars cannot be passed into law without a royal recommendation from the government.
But the government has rejected that specific Bloc demand, voting against the motion that ultimately passed with the support of Conservative, NDP and Green Party MPs.
A question commissioned by CTV News from the same Nanos omnibus survey asked respondents for their opinion on the proposal to provide a 10-per-cent increase in benefits to seniors 65 to 74.
More than three-quarters of respondents said they either support (55 per cent) or somewhat support (24 per cent) the idea.
“Canadians generally support the idea of an increase in the OAS. However, when prompted on overall spending priorities based on all age groups, there is division,” said Mr. Nanos. “This is more about politics and parliamentary brinkmanship than good public policy. The Bloc are offering money to a group that is more likely to prefer that no new money be spent at all.”
The poll for The Globe also found that the Conservative Party remains the top choice in terms of trust to support economic growth, at 38 per cent, followed by the Liberals at 37 per cent and the NDP at 7 per cent.
In their public explanations, Liberal ministers seemed to side with policy experts who questioned the merits of the Bloc bill, saying its implementation would ultimately mean less money is available for the needs of younger Canadians.
“We have to look at the intergenerational impacts of something like that,” said Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault on Tuesday. By the day of the vote Wednesday, he was even more forceful, saying the change would benefit higher-income seniors more than lower-income seniors.
“We felt that what they were proposing was extremely expensive, was socially regressive,” he said. “It makes no sense.”
Ms. Freeland suggested on Tuesday that the government’s response to the Bloc’s demand on seniors has been a hot topic of internal debate. “We have discussed this at great length for many days in our government,” she said.
In response to poll questions about other economic matters, the Conservative lead was less pronounced.
When asked which federal party they trust most with helping the middle class, 29 per cent said the Conservatives, 24 per cent chose the Liberals and 20 per cent chose the NDP.
When asked which party is most trusted on the issue of affordable housing, 24 per cent said the Conservatives, 23 per cent said the NDP and the Liberals placed third at 17 per cent. Twenty-one per cent said none of them.