Keynote address by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance on how the 2023 Budget will help grow Canada’s economy and invest in Canadians

Toronto, ON - April 3, 2023

First, I would like to acknowledge that we are gathered on the traditional territories of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples.

Canada’s economy has made a remarkable recovery from the COVID recession.

Last year, Canada delivered the strongest economic growth in the G7 and, as we found out on Friday, in the first quarter of this year our economy grew much more robustly than expected.

There are 830,000 more Canadians working today than when COVID first hit.

We have recovered 126 per cent of the jobs that were lost in those first dark months—compared to just 114 per cent in the United States.

When we announced a Canada-wide system of affordable early learning and child care in our 2021 budget, we said it would create new economic opportunities for mothers across Canada and thus greater prosperity for us all.

And you know what? It worked.

This February, the labour force participation rate for Canadian women in their prime working years hit a record high of 85.7 per cent.

Today, there are more Canadians with good jobs than ever before.

As we all know, Putin and the pandemic drove up inflation around the world. Central banks have responded with one of the fastest and most synchronized monetary tightening cycles since the 1980s.

Now today, here in Canada, inflation is coming down.

Inflation has declined for eight months in a row, falling to 5.2 per cent in February, and the Bank of Canada predicts it will drop to just 2.6 per cent by the end of this year. In February, the average wage for Canadians went up by 5.4 per cent. That meant paycheques outpaced inflation, which meant more money in Canadians’ pockets after a hard day’s work—from coast to coast to coast.

But we all know that our most vulnerable friends and neighbours are still feeling the bite of higher prices.

And that is why our budget delivers targeted inflation relief to those who need it most. For 11 million Canadians and Canadian families—including many here in Toronto—a new Grocery Rebate will provide up to $467 to help make up for higher prices at the checkout counter—without adding fuel to the fire of inflation.

Because we also know that what all Canadians want most right now is for inflation to keep coming down and for interest rates to fall.

Which is why the budget I tabled last week will ensure that Canada maintains the lowest deficit and the lowest debt to GDP ratio in the G7.

We’re reducing government spending by more than $15 billion while taking great care not to reduce the services and direct support that Canadians rely on. Even with the slowing economy both in Canada and around the world our deficit is lower than it was last year, down from 1.5 per cent to 1.4 per cent of GDP.

That is the lowest by some margin in the G7 and our deficit will continue to decline.

Canada is a country of peace, order, and good government. We have strong institutions and a resilient financial system that is the envy of the world.

Our country has a proud tradition of fiscal responsibility and that is a tradition we are determined to uphold.

Canada’s strong balance sheet means we can continue to invest in Canadians and in the Canadian economy for years to come just as we have done since 2015.

Because we know that investments in Canadians are also investments in our economy. This is what the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, has referred to as “Modern Supply-Side Economics.”

We are investing in housing, because our economy is built by people, and people need homes to live in.

We are investing in Canadian workers so they have the skills they need, and can travel to where the jobs are.

We are investing in a stronger immigration system and welcoming record numbers of skilled workers to Canada to support our growing businesses.

And we are investing in affordable child care for families from coast to coast to coast, so that more Canadian mothers no longer have to choose between their family and their career.

Investments in housing, and skills, and immigration, and child care: these are not just social policies—they are economic policies, too.

And health care is another one of those policies.

That is why we are delivering the comprehensive, $198 billion investment in public health care that the Prime Minister announced in February.

Here in Ontario, this means an additional $76.8 billion for public health care over the next ten years.

That is $76.8 billion to help everyone in Ontario find a family doctor, to provide better access to mental health services, to tackle the unacceptable backlog of surgeries, and to ensure that every single person across our great province receives the care they need.

We will ensure that every Canadian can rely on a world-class, publicly funded health care system—one that is deserving of its place at the very heart of what it means to be Canadian.

And just as we are reinforcing the public health care system we have today, we are also expanding its reach.

Today, in Canada, you can tell the size of someone’s paycheque or how much money their parents make by their smile. That’s wrong, and that is why we are going to change that with our new Canadian Dental Care Plan.

Since December, our investments have helped more than 240,000 Canadian children receive the dental care they need.

By the end of 2023, we will begin rolling out a dental care plan that will eventually cover up to nine million uninsured Canadians. That will mean no Canadian, ever again, will need to choose between taking care of their teeth and paying the bills at the end of the month.

Since tabling the budget, I have been travelling around the country. So many people have come up to me and have said: “I’m glad you’re doing dental care. When I was a kid I could have used that,” or: “I have a neighbour who really needs it.”

I’m glad that as a country it’s something that we’re putting in place.

These are significant and necessary investments.

Because a strong and effective health care system is essential for a strong and healthy Canadian workforce.

And we need a strong and healthy Canadian workforce now, more than ever.

Because as we wrestle inflation to the ground, Canada must also navigate two fundamental shifts in the global economy.

First, in what is the most significant economic transformation since the Industrial Revolution, our friends and partners around the world—chief among them, the United States—are investing heavily to build clean economies and the net-zero industries of tomorrow.

At the same time, Putin and the pandemic have cruelly revealed to the world’s democracies the risks of economic reliance on dictatorships. As a result, our allies are moving quickly to friendshore their economies and build their supply chains through economies like our own. Together, these two great shifts represent the most significant opportunity for Canadian workers in the lifetime of anyone here today.

That is not hyperbole, or a mere turn of phrase.

Last month, in her address to our Parliament, President von der Leyen of the European Union said she wants Canada and Europe to “join forces for the climate, for our economies,” and to end what she called Europe’s “dangerous dependencies” on authoritarian economies.

In his address a couple of weeks later also to our Parliament, President Biden told us that we are at an inflection point in history.

He said that we had all learned the hard way that just-in-time supply chains expose us to significant risks and he urged us to work together to build a future based on our shared prosperity—“where Canada and the United States can anchor the most competitive, prosperous, and resilient economic region in the world.”

These are our closest friends and our steadfast democratic allies. These are our two greatest trading partners.

And like so many of our partners around the world, they need the expertise of Canadian workers, the ingenuity of Canadian businesses, and the resources that Canada has in such fortunate abundance.

Today, and in the years to come, Canada must either meet this historic moment—this remarkable opportunity—or we will be left behind as the world’s democracies build the clean economy of the 21st century.

Our government’s choice is clear and unequivocal. We will fight for Canadians, and we will fight for Canadian businesses. We will ensure that Canada seizes this historic opportunity.

We are going to build a clean electrical grid that connects Canadians from coast to coast to coast, protects our environment, and delivers cleaner, more affordable electricity to Canadians and Canadian businesses.

We are going to make Canada the very best place in the world for businesses to invest because that means more vibrant prosperous communities and more good careers for Canadians. Canada is the only G7 country with free trade deals with each of our other G7 allies. We are going to make Canada a reliable supplier of clean energy to our allies and to the world.

And from critical minerals to electric vehicles, we are going to ensure that Canadian workers mine, and process, and build, and sell the goods and the resources that our allies need.

We are going to make sure that the unions who built the middle class can continue to thrive, and we are going to make it easier for Canadian workers to learn the skills they need.

When the Government of Canada buys things from other countries, we are going to make sure that those countries offer Canadian businesses the same access we give their businesses.

We’re going to build big things here in Canada—from a Volkswagen battery plant in St. Thomas, to the Galaxy Lithium mine in Quebec, to the Trans Mountain Expansion in Alberta, to the Atlantic Loop, to the LNG terminal in Kitimat, BC.

Our plan is about creating good-paying jobs—good careers—for everyone, everywhere, from big cities to small towns. From here in the heart of downtown Toronto, Ontario to Peace River, Alberta.

For our auto workers building electric vehicles, and our bus drivers who drive them.

For our skilled tradespeople expanding our clean energy grid, and building thousands and thousands of affordable energy efficient homes.

For our miners and our energy workers, our nuclear engineers, powering Canada and the world.

For our health care workers and our teachers who make our communities thrive.

For our farmers and our fishers, who feed Canada and the world.

For our incredible service workers—you are essential, and I want you to know that we appreciate and value your work.

For our forestry workers, our climate scientists and our environmental biologists.

For Indigenous Peoples building major projects, and sharing in the prosperity they create.

For our incredible computer scientists in Toronto—who have been creating more jobs than Silicon Valley and have already made Canada an AI superpower.

And for our new generation of small business entrepreneurs dreaming up solutions to the challenges of the 21st century—and their hardworking employees providing for their families all across our great country.

As I’ve travelled across Canada in my pre-budget consultations, getting ready to put this budget together, I’ve met a lot of incredible, hardworking Canadians.

I’ve met potash miners and child care workers.

I’ve met scientists and innovators, and the longshore workers and truckers who keep Canada’s economy moving.

And all across our great country, I’ve met people who value the same things.

A good career that pays them well, doing work they are proud of.

The ability to live with dignity—to be who they are, to love who they love, and to be judged on their character, rather than what they look like or where they were born.

The belief that if they work hard, they can afford to raise their children and launch them into an even more prosperous future.

And the conviction that because they live in Canada—by birth or by choice—that every single day represents a new opportunity.

And that is what our budget invests in: the possibility for every single Canadian to share in the remarkable opportunities that Canada provides—and in the new era of prosperity that we will build together.

The brave people of Ukraine have reminded me—I think they’ve reminded all of us—that we must never take our freedom and our democracy for granted. We have the power to shape our country’s future and we must always be sure to use it.

What a gift it is to call this remarkable country home.

Canada is a land filled with good, hardworking people—people who do big and important things.

And it is because of you, because of us—the people of Canada—and the big and important things we will do in the months and years to come—that I have never been more optimistic about the future of our country than I am today.

Thank you very much.