Guelph’s member of parliament says billions of dollars in new spending announced Monday is a preview of next year’s budget, that is if the minority Liberal government survives a confidence vote in the House of Commons.
On Monday the federal government presented its fall economic statement, which includes more than $25 billion in new spending to top up and expand existing programs and create new, targeted support for industries hard hit by the pandemic.
Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield told GuelphToday on Tuesday that there are a number of items in the statement he is pleased to see, including business supports, student loan relief and long-term care spending.
"This isn't a budget, it's an economic statement,” said Longfield. “It's kind of a course correction, so it's a signal of what may be coming soon in the next budget.”
Longfield said the business supports announced Monday will take a three-pronged approach to issues created by the pandemic, including rent relief, wage subsidies and loans.
“Of course the businesses shy away from the loans because things are uncertain, so that's one piece that they can use as a last resort,” said Longfield.
The government wants to bring the wage subsidy back to 75 per cent of business payroll costs and extend the business rent subsidy to mid-March.
“Getting the rents covered — 65 per cent of them anyway — that's available now,” said Longfield. “Combined with the 75 per cent wage benefits, you are covering off two big pieces of businesses' expenses.”
He noted the wage subsidy is scaled, with only businesses who have lost the most business during the pandemic able to unlock the highest percentage to help cover the cost of wages.
Banquet halls and hotels now have access to additional loans guaranteed by the government that can be repaid over the next decade.
Longfield said even though hotels in Guelph may have branding from big chain hotels, many are owned by local business people.
“They are not going to see a recovery any time soon. It will probably be 2022 before tourism starts going again,” said Longfield.
More work needs to be done in terms of the economic recovery.
“I have been watching the Guelph employment numbers and job market numbers for 10 years,” said Longfield. “We see some recovery there but there are certain areas where we are still having trouble finding employees — health care is one and long-term care, early childhood education and manufacturers are still having trouble finding people — so we still have some gaps to fill in the employment area.”
He noted many jobs have also been lost locally in the retail and service industries.
The government is also planning to remove interest payments on the federal portion of student loans until the end of 2021.
"It kind of makes sense that banks shouldn't be making interest on students that have no income and are trying to get through their courses so on the other end of the pandemic we will have them helping out in the workplace,” said Longfield.
Low and medium-income families who are entitled to the Canada Child Benefit will receive temporary additional support totalling up to $1,200 in 2021 for every child under the age of six.
"That's just recognizing child care expenses and PPE for the kids and all of those kinds of things," said Longfield.
The government is also introducing a $1 billion safe long-term care fund for the provinces and territories to help long-term care homes to purchase personal protective equipment and to prepare for vaccination efforts.
"If you look at the numbers now there are way too many seniors getting sick and dying from COVID," said Longfield.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the fall economic statement will be put to a confidence vote that could risk toppling his Liberal minority government.
Failure to gather the necessary support during such a vote would mean the minority government falls, possibly plunging the country into a federal election contest.
Trudeau told media on Tuesday he's confident the Liberals will have enough opposition support given the need households and businesses have for many of the proposed measures.
– With files from The Canadian Press
