Minister Hussen highlights budget investments to increase productivity, bolster innovation and grow the economy

April 25, 2024 – Greater Sudbury, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada

The federal government recently delivered Budget 2024: Fairness for Every Generation.

It is a plan to build a Canada that works better for everyone, where younger generations can get ahead, where their hard work pays off, and where they can buy a home—where everyone has a fair chance at a good middle-class life.

Today, the Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of International Development, joined by Marc G. Serré, Member of Parliament for Nickel Belt, in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, highlighted Budget 2024’s investments for increasing productivity, boosting innovation and growing the economy.

The following measures, announced in Budget 2024, will support economic growth.

• Strengthening Canada's AI Advantage with a monumental investment in targeted AI support of over $2.4 billion, including to launch a new AI Compute Access Fund and Canadian Sovereign Compute Strategy, and to support AI adoption across our entire economy. This will help Canadian researchers, start-ups, and scale-up businesses access the computational power and the digital tools they need to compete and help catalyze the development of Canadian-owned and located AI infrastructure. 
• Enhancing Research Support and Federal Research Grants, with $3.5 billion in new strategic research infrastructure and federal research support, including investments in modern, high-quality research facilities and infrastructure, which are essential for breakthroughs in Canadian research and science. This also includes $2.4 billion for core research grants and to foster homegrown, top-tier research talent by streamlining and enhancing scholarships and fellowships through Canada's research granting councils. Boosting research support will ensure our industries and businesses can hire the talent they need to increase productivity and remain on the cutting edge.
• A new Electric Vehicle (EV) Supply Chain investment tax credit to support the EV supply chain and secure the future of Canada's automotive industry.

Budget 2024 is a plan to deliver fairness for every generation.

First, the budget takes bold action to build more homes. Because the best way to make home prices more affordable is to increase supply—and quickly. It lays out a strategy to unlock 3.87 million new homes by 2031. Key measures include launching the new Public Lands for Homes Plan and Canada Rental Protection Fund, enhancing the Canadian Mortgage Charter, and creating a new Canadian Renters’ Bill of Rights.

Second, it will help make life cost less. The budget builds on the government’s transformative expansion of Canada’s social safety net—$10-a-day child care, dental care for uninsured Canadians, the first phase of universal pharmacare—and advances the government’s work to lower everyday costs for Canadians. This includes helping to stabilize the cost of groceries, cracking down on junk fees, and lowering the costs of banking. Budget 2024 also makes transformative new investments, including a National School Food Program and the Canada Disability Benefit.

Third, this year’s budget will grow the economy in a way that’s shared by all. The government’s plan will increase investment, enhance productivity, and encourage innovation. It will create good-paying and meaningful jobs, keep Canada at the economic forefront, and deliver new support to empower more of our best entrepreneurs and innovators. This includes attracting more investment in the net-zero economy by expanding and delivering the major economic investment tax credits, securing Canada’s advantage as a leader in artificial intelligence, and investing in enhanced research grants that will provide younger generations with good jobs and new opportunities. And it means ensuring Indigenous Peoples share in this growth in a way that works for them.

Budget 2024 will also make Canada’s tax system fairer by asking the wealthiest to pay a bit more—so that the government can invest in prosperity for every generation, and because it would be irresponsible and unfair to pass on more debt to the next generations. Budget 2024 is a responsible economic plan that upholds the fiscal objectives outlined in the 2023 Fall Economic Statement, and sees Canada maintain the lowest deficit- and net debt-to-GDP ratios in the G7.