Budget 2023: Freeland clarifies its priorities

The upcoming 2023 federal budget will “exert fiscal restraint” while making “significant” investments in Canada’s health and building a clean economy, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday.

In a speech detailing the Liberal government’s priorities ahead of the release of next week’s budget, Freeland said the budget will include “targeted inflation relief” to help those Canadians who are feeling the effects of rising prices the hardest. price.

However, with the federal government remaining cognizant of the need not to throw fuel on the fire of inflation, Freeland pledged to “exercise fiscal restraint”.

She noted that with this in mind, the 2023 federal budget will prioritize “two important and necessary investments”: funding health care and building a clean economy in Canada.

Addressing the state of the Canadian economy, the finance minister touted Canada’s near-record unemployment rate after the COVID-19 recession, but admitted inflation is “still too high” and rates higher interest rates have an impact.

“The global economy has slowed down, and the Canadian economy has slowed down. That means government revenues are weaker… Our ability to spend is not infinite,” Freeland said.

“What Canadians want right now is for inflation to come down and interest rates to come down. And that is one of our main objectives in this year’s budget: not to add fuel to the fire of inflation. Thus, in our budget, we will show budgetary rigor. »

More soon…