10 highlights from the federal budget — and 1 new rule for cellphone providers

To the Swifties, they’re promising to push the provinces to crack down on the rogue world of online ticket sales.

Unlike the vast majority of the budget revealed Tuesday – $61.2 billion in new spending since last fall – the ticket sellers pledge won’t cost a penny.

But here’s a look at some highlights that will cost.

Housing: $8.5 billion in new funding, plus promises to rejig existing funding programs that would tie money such as federal transit funds to housing builds. The housing funds address everything from freeing up more federal lands to build houses to helping cities put in the infrastructure they need to support those homes.

Defence: $8.1 billion over five years. The funding covers all aspects of the Forces, from child care for soldiers to new helicopters, frigates and ammunition. The funds are part of a long-awaited refresh of defence policy.

School lunches: $1 billion over five years to expand access to school food programs for 400,000 kids.

A new disability benefit: A long-promised program worth $6.1 billion over six years and then $1.4 billion a year after that to help supplement incomes for people living with disabilities.

Health measures: $1.5 billion over five years to support the launch of a national pharmacare plan, plus money for foreign credential recognition, supporting the mental health of Black Canadians and other initiatives.

Electric vehicles: $607.9 million over two years to top up an existing program aimed at getting more people to buy electric vehicles.

New national parks: The creation of the Pituamkek National Park Reserve in Prince Edward Island, the Ojibway National Urban Park in Windsor, Ont., and a new marine conservation area reserve in B.C.

Research and development: $1.8 billion over five years to support Canadian scientific, health and social sciences and humanities research.

Confronting hate: $273.6 million over five years to support communities, policing initiatives and training, security infrastructure and other programs. There’s also more money for special envoys on Islamophobia and antisemitism, and more money for Holocaust remembrance.

Loans: The budget is replete with billions in new spending on low-cost or no-cost loan programs. Among them: money to build new child-care centres, apartments and secondary suites. There’s a major new loan program for Indigenous communities to build natural resource and energy projects, and Ottawa is also expanding student loan forgiveness to more fields of study. Of note: the loans don’t count as government spending because they are eventually paid back.

Where the money is coming from:

The budget projects $21.9 billion in new revenue. A big part of that is a new capital gains tax. On earnings above $250,000 that come from the sale or inheritance of certain assets, two-thirds of the earnings will now be taxed as income. Right now, it is just half. With the wealthiest Canadians profiting the most from capital gains, the tax will hit them hardest, a measure Ottawa is framing as ensuring they pay their fair share. The measure is expected to net $19.4 billion over five years.

Ottawa is also increasing taxes on cigarettes by $4 per carton of 200 cigarettes to make $1.36 billion over five years, and pledging to forge ahead soon with a new tax on multinational corporations that could increase revenue by $6.6 billion over three years.

No-cost measures and promises

Beyond the pledge to push provinces on ticket resellers, there are other items in the budget that have no costs attached.

Among them: new penalties related to auto theft, including efforts to regulate the sale of devices that can be used to steal cars.

New legislation will also be introduced to prohibit cellphone service providers from charging people a fee to switch companies.

The government also wants a new law that would force banks to label payments from the government the way Ottawa wants them labelled, an issue that arose recently with the carbon tax rebate.

And after being challenged recently on shortages of infant formula and kids’ pain medication, Ottawa is also seeking more regulatory flexibility to address potential future shortages.

Clarification - April 23, 2024

This article was edited from a previous version to clarify language around the capital gains inclusion tax rate.