Federal Budget Good For Atlantic Canada On Housing And Immigration: APEC
HALIFAX–The Atlantic Province’s Economic Council says the federal budget aligns well with many of Atlantic Canada’s economic priorities, particularly around housing and immigration.
In its new report on the budget’s implications for the region, APEC highlights new investments focused on social priorities that are part of a budget that projects a rapidly declining deficit as Covid-19 spending unwinds and a program review is launched.
Patrick Brannon, a senior researcher with the APEC, says one big takeaway from the budget was the government’s focus on affordable housing. He said the focus was “welcome,” considering housing is one of the largest issues affecting Atlantic Canada.
“It’s really important that we improve the housing stock so that there is more supply available,” he says. “They’ve also clamped down on a couple of things, including blind bidding and foreign buyers of real estate, so that will help ease some of the price growth in the region.”
While Brannan says the renewed government focus on addressing housing was important, it’s only being addressed to a degree. He says there’s still more work to do by other levels of government to meet current demand.
“They committed to 6,000 new affordable units. Atlanta Canada is probably only going to see about 400 of those,” says Brannon. He says once investments are parsed into cities it will likely only make a small dent in the affordable housing demand in our region.
“It’s a small start but not going to make a massive difference,” he says. “We need to work more at the provincial level and the municipal level as well to continue to build affordable housing and build it into new developments in each of the cities.”
Budget 2022 commits $10.5-billion over five years for Indigenous communities, including $2.5-billion over the next fiscal year, including funding for Indigenous children, housing, health, and economic development.
In APEC’s review of the budget, Brannon estimates that Atlantic Indigenous communities could receive $800 million over five years, based on population share.
Thursday’s budget also saw the announcement of a national dental care program for families with income under $90,000.
That means, beginning next year, people under 18 years old, seniors, and people with disabilities will qualify for free dental care. The program’s cost will reach $1.7-billion within five years.
Labour Market Initiatives
Labour shortages, specifically those felt across many service sectors and skilled labour roles in Atlantic Canada, have long been a broader issue. Budget 2022 attempts to address that by committing $4-billion over the next five years to support more immigration and better processing times.
Brannon says Ottawa’s ramp-up of immigration targets means the Atlantic Immigration Program should see a big chunk of the money this year to help receive and process immigrants into Canada. He says retention of new immigrants to the Atlantic region remains a priority.
“That rising focus on immigration needs some money to support that,” says Brannon. He adds that measures to improve the Temporary Foreign Worker Program should also benefit Atlantic employers.
“There’s some extension of some of the changes to the program. It’s going to potentially help agriculture fish processors in Atlantic Canada,” he says. He points to the announcement of a Trusted Employer Model that will help reduce red tape for repeat employers leveraging the program.
Brannon stated some tweaks to Employment Insurance rules will also help the region in tourism, fishing, and other seasonal industries. It will provide as many as five more weeks of benefits for seasonal workers, which will be extended until October 2023 at a cost of $110-million.
“There’s still a broader review of even EI that needs to be done over the next few years,” says Brannon.
APEC recently pushed for examining EI reform, and while Brannon agrees a lot has changed with the EI program over the last decade or so, he believes more can be done to get more full-time workers into the Atlantic economy.
“It does still sustain seasonal work patterns,” he says. “We have more seasonal workers here in Atlantic Canada. It’s something that we have to dig into a little bit deeper to make sure that it’s not continuing on with that trend of seasonality in the workforce.”
Brannon says the establishment of a Canada Growth Fund and the creation of a Canadian Innovation and Investment Agency will help the region’s tech and innovation sectors grow at a faster pace.
“The money is really a few years down the road,” he says. “The couple of programs that were created during this budget–it’s really this year that they’re setting it up.”
Economic Development
Brannon says it’s also good to see a focus on critical minerals, considering what’s happening to Russia’s economy following its invasion of Ukraine.
“We do have to improve our supply chains for critical minerals for things like cobalt and copper and some of the rare earth elements that go into electric vehicles and solar panels,” he says.
He says Ottawa’s new $3.8-billion Critical Minerals Strategy will help support investment, as well as exploration in Labrador. It will also improve the feasibility of the Sisson mine project in New Brunswick and the East Kemptville project in Nova Scotia.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster was also included as one of the five innovation superclusters (now to be collectively dubbed, “Canada’s Global Innovation Clusters”), which will share an additional $640-million in funding between 2023 and 2027.
PEI’s potato industry will also receive $20-million over two years, money which will help the industry recover from last year’s potato wart outbreak.
Tyler Mclean is a Huddle reporter based in Fredericton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].