Protecting Canadians from COVID-19 and the ravages of a battered economy were the focus of the throne speech, delivered in Ottawa September 23.
The throne speech prioritized programs that would battle the pandemic, ensuring sufficient public health measures were in place to reduce COVID’s impact on the population, and assist those most vulnerable to the impact of economic recession.
Those initiatives include investment to create a national early learning and childcare system, job creation, public transit infrastructure, energy efficient retrofits, clean energy, rural broadband, and affordable housing, particularly for Indigenous Peoples and northern communities.
“The speech did not speak to national core infrastructure investment plans nor any national strategy to invest in Canada’s trade capacity in spite of the economy’s reliance on trade for investments, growth, jobs and revenues governments need to fund existing or new programming,” said MHCA President Chris Lorenc. “This is a missed opportunity to invest in our national interest, our ability to promote Canada as the jurisdiction in which to invest, to manufacture, and through which to pursue global trade activities.”
Instead, it committed the government to “identify additional ways to tax extreme wealth inequality, including by concluding work to limit the stock option deduction for wealthy individuals at large, established corporations, and addressing corporate tax avoidance by digital giants.”
To read the throne speech click here.