The 2024 federal budget is designed to “meet the moment” facing young Canadians and the economy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a room of Canadian business leaders in Ottawa on Monday afternoon.
But it also comes as liberals are still searching for the magic formula to win back voters’ favor.
The budget, which Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will present Tuesday afternoon, contains billions in investments already promised in housing, artificial intelligence and defense, Trudeau noted.
He did not provide any insight into how they will be funded.
Much of the budget is intended to give hope to younger Canadians who have come of age during a tumultuous economic era, Trudeau said, and “now feel that middle-class stability is out of reach.”
“We need to face this moment because that cannot be allowed to happen,” he told the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
“Our country cannot be successful unless young people are successful; and furthermore, our country cannot be successful unless young people can imagine themselves being successful. And they just don’t feel it right now.”
The Liberals have been announcing several measures that will be included in the budget document for two weeks.
A new Leger poll suggests Canadians like what they saw.
The survey, which took the temperature of 1,525 adults online between Friday and Sunday, says 73 percent of respondents support $6 billion housing infrastructure fund, 71 percent support new program $1 billion national school feeding program and 67 percent support the $15 billion Apartment Construction Loan Program.
Sixty percent also support $8 billion in new defense spending over the next five years, the survey found.
A margin of error cannot be assigned to the survey because online surveys are not considered statistically balanced samples, although results were weighted to ensure statistical accuracy.
Despite support for those articles, Canadians remain in a bad mood about the economy, with only a third saying they believe the Liberals are taking positive steps toward improving housing affordability or growing the economy. .
A similar share says they believe liberals are pursuing policies that focus on helping middle-class families.
Both Trudeau and Freeland have dodged questions about how the government will fund the promised policies, only confirming that there will be no tax increases for the “middle class.”
However, they left room to raise taxes on corporations or wealthy Canadians.
The survey suggests that while increases in the GST or personal income taxes in general would be extremely unpopular, there are many people who want to see new taxes on the rich.
Nearly 80 percent of respondents support a new tax on personal wealth over $10 million, 75 percent support a new tax on the profits of “very large” corporations, and 62 percent support an increase in corporate or commercial taxes.
Freeland spent part of Monday participating in the long tradition of buying new shoes on a budget, this time sporting a pair of practical black pumps with a modest heel from Canadian shoemaker Maguire.