Governor General Julie Payette laid out a broad and ambitious plan for Canada’s economic recovery today as she opened a new session of parliament with a speech from the throne.
Payette, laying out Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new national agenda, said the Covid-19 pandemic “laid bare fundamental gaps in our society.”
Speaking about his government’s plan after Payette’s speech, Trudeau echoed Payette and said his government plans to repair Canada’s economy, bolstering social welfare programs and investing in the green economy.
“This pandemic has reminded us all that strong, social supports are essential to growing the economy,” Trudeau said.
In her throne speech, Payette outlined how the government hopes to do that, saying the prime minister won’t be afraid to spend money to make it happen.
“This is not the time for austerity,” Payette said. “Canadians should not have to choose between their health and their job” or “take on debt when the government can shoulder it.”
One of the major promises in the government’s plan is a pledge to create more than 1 million jobs and restore employment to its pre-pandemic levels.
Canada’s unemployment rate rose as high as 13.7 percent at the height of the pandemic and sat at 10.2 percent at the end of August. In February, before the pandemic, unemployment in Canada sat at 5.6 percent.
Payette said the government will use a “range of tools” to try and bring those jobs back, including direct investments in the social sector and infrastructure, “immediate” training to “scale up” workers, and incentives for employers to hire and retain workers.
The government will also support businesses by extending the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy until next summer, expanding the Canada Emergency Business Account, and improving the business credit availability program.
Prior to Payette’s speech, the Canadian Federation for Independent Business called on the government to include these types of extensions in its economic recovery plan.
“I’m pleased today’s throne speech focuses on the continued economic response to Covid-19,” The CFIB’s Dan Kelley said in a statement after the speech. “Renewing the wage subsidy and expanding CEBA to cover fixed costs are both very positive measures.”
Kelly said, however, he is disappointed there are no signs the government will cancel Canadian Pension Plan hikes scheduled for January 1 and a hike in the federal carbon backstop in the spring.
In her speech, Payette also pledged new support for industries that have been hit hardest by the pandemic. She said support will be coming for travel, tourism, and performing arts sectors, but did not say specifically what that support would be.
The government’s recovery plan also acknowledges that women, particularly low-income women, have been “hit hardest by Covid-19.” Payette said the government does not want the pandemic to leave a legacy of “rolling back the clock” on women’s participation in the economy.
“No parent, especially no mother, should have to put their career on hold,” Trudeau said.
To combat the “she-cession” the government is promising to create an action plan to help bring women back into the workforce. The plan will draw on a “feminist intersectional response to this pandemic and recovery” and be guided by a task force of experts.
Payette said the government is also pledging to make “significant, long-term, sustained investment” to create a Canada-wide early learning and childcare system.
As part of its pledge to “build back better,” the government is also promising to “identify additional ways to tax extreme wealth inequality.”
Payette said measures could include limiting stock option deductions for the wealthy and addressing corporate tax avoidance by “digital giants”
“Web giants are taking Canadians’ money while imposing their own priorities. Things must change and will change,” she said.
She said the government will make sure revenue from those “tech giants” is “shared more fairly” with Canadian creators and media and that the companies are contributing to the production of Canadian content.
The government also wants to make Canada “the most competitive jurisdiction in the world for clean technology companies.”
It will do this through a new fund aimed at attracting investment into companies creating zero-emission products as well as a 50 percent corporate tax cut for clean technology companies.
Along with economic initiatives, the government’s plan made several major commitments to environmental protection.
Payette said climate action will be a “cornerstone” of the government’s plan to create 1 million jobs. She said the government will “immediately” bring forward a plan for Canada to exceed its 2030 climate goals and reaffirmed its commitment to get Canada to net zero emissions by 2050.
Payette also outlined several measures the government will take to help provinces test and track Covid-19, as well as several commitments to measures designed to help indigenous and racialized Canadians.
Trudeau acknowledged that his government’s plans will come with significant cost, and said questions about how the government will afford its plans are fair.
“Low-interest rates mean we can afford [this plan],” he said. “And, in fact, doing less would end up costing far more. Doing less would mean a slower recovery and bigger deficits in the long run.”
He said the government will “keep investing” to prevent Canadians from taking on debt, but said that investment must happen “in a fiscally sustainable way.”
Shortly after Payette’s speech, Lisa Raitt, the deputy leader of the Conservative Part of Canada, said she was “very concerned” with Trudeau’s plan and that her party would not support “another speech that is filled with Liberal buzzwords and grand gestures.”
“It doesn’t speak at all of national unity, it doesn’t speak of our energy sector and our workers in Alberta and Saskatchewan and Manitoba, it doesn’t talk about agriculture,” she said.
Raitt said her party is concerned the speech had no “fiscal framework” and said, “the only thing Canadians can be guaranteed of fiscally is that there will be more debt.”
She said the throne speech had “very little to no follow-up plan” and accused the Prime Minister of proroguing parliament simply to escape scrutiny.
Trevor Nichols is a Reporter with Huddle Today, an Acadia Broadcasting content sharing partner.
