Conservatives Plan to Vote Against Federal Budget, While NDP Will Support It

Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland delivers the federal budget in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on March 28, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said his party won’t be voting for the newly tabled federal budget, while NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said his party will vote in favour of the commitments in the budget he “forced this government to deliver.”

“Today’s budget by the costly coalition of the NDP-Liberals is a full-frontal attack on the paychecks of hardworking Canadians,” Poilievre said to reporters following Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s budget delivery on March 28.

“It equals $4,200 per family in new government spending. That’s more inflation, more taxes, and more costs for everyday people. There’s no common sense.”

Poilievre said his party had asked for three things in the new budget: to bring lower prices by eliminating deficits, lower taxes to give Canadians more “powerful paycheques,” and remove government “gatekeepers” to speed up the construction of homes and lower the cost of building permits.

“Those three demands have not been met. This is an attack on the hardworking people of this country, and that is why conservatives will be voting no,” Poilievre said.

Freeland said the budget’s aim is to support Canadians who have been hit hard by inflation and the rising cost of living.

“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,” she said in her speech to Parliament.

Poilievre claimed there’s “nothing” in the budget that would help with affordability, while noting that the the additional deficit spending will “make everything more expensive.” However, he complimented the Liberals for “plagiarizing” the Conservative’s proposal to “give First Nations more control over their money.”

“I think it’s very encouraging and we want to build upon that,” he said.

Many of the measures the NDP asked for were included in the budget as part of its confidence-and-supply agreement to support the Liberals, including more than $13 billion earmarked over the next five years to create a Canadian dental care plan, and $2.5 billion to be spent this year on a GST rebate dubbed the “grocery store rebate,” and $1.9 billion to be spent over five years on an indigenous housing strategy.

Singh told reporters that although there were aspects of the budget that the NDP “was not satisfied with,” his party would be voting in support of it.

“We’re going to be supporting the expansion of dental care, giving people some money back in their pockets, helping them save money, and supporting the good wages tied to investments,” he said. “We’re going to be supporting the relief that Canadians deserve, and that we forced this government to deliver.”

Singh said he’s “proud” that the NDP had pushed the Liberals to include a GST rebate in the budget. The one-time rebate which will provide eligible families with up to $467 to alleviate the cost of groceries, while single Canadians with no kids could get up to $234.

“It’s something that’s going to make a difference in people’s lives,” he said.

The NDP leader also highlighted the $13-billion plan to expand dental care to families earning less than $90,000 a year, which he said will help Canadians in a “real concrete way.”

However, Singh said he was dissatisfied with the government not making more investments to deal with Canada’s housing crisis, or making changes to employment insurance “given that we’re up against a recession.” He also said he still wants to see anti-scab legislation and Pharmacare legislation, and his party will “make sure this government delivers those things” by the end of the year.

Poilievre criticized the New Democrats for propping up the Liberals and committing to support the budget, blaming them for “keeping young people living in their parents’ basements and forcing seniors to choose between heating and eating.”

When asked about $49 million in the budget earmarked to deal with foreign interference and the intimidation of immigrant diaspora communities in Canada by foreign governments, Poilievre said what is really needed is a “prime minister who protects our democracy.”

“This country should control its own democracy, not Davos, not Beijing. No one outside of the walls of our country should determine what happens in our land and I will stand up for our democracy,” he said.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said the budget “fails people and the planet” by focusing on policies that “don’t deliver.” She said the budget did not contain disability benefit payments, an amnesty on Canada Emergency Response Benefit repayments “that are hitting the lowest income people,” or new investments in housing besides “very welcome investments in indigenous housing.”

May also said there is nothing in the budget to help low-income Canadians except for a one-time grocery rebate one week out of the next year, up to $437 in GST repayments.

“There is money in new taxes and share dividend charges and so on—about eight and a half billion dollars in new tax measures on the wealthiest—and that’s welcome. But we were really disappointed at the lack of imagination and lack of courage in a wide range of measures,” she said.