The 2024 federal budget is out, with a raft of proposed legislation and funding across housing, health-care, childcare, cost-of-living expenses, the economy and more.
Pique had a chat with West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky MP, Patrick Weiler, to get his initial thoughts on a handful of items discussed in the 400-page budget documents.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Pique: What is your initial reaction to what’s in the budget? Does it have what you were hoping for?
Patrick Weiler: Absolutely it does. The biggest challenge we have as a country right now from my point of view is the housing crisis that we have, and this budget is squarely focused on solving the housing crisis and launching a comprehensive plan that lays out how we’re going to get to building 3.87 million homes by 2031, which will meet the demand that we have. That’s absolutely crucial.
It provides funding for programs that are already delivering in the Sea to Sky region like the Apartment Construction Loan Program, the Housing Accelerator Fund, and the Affordable Housing Fund that have already built a significant amount of units and more of them are on the way. This builds on that, and goes so much further…
There’s so much, it represents all of the different levers the federal government can pull to get the housing that we badly need built. It will also require us to work very closely with the provinces, and we’re fortunate that we have a very close working relationship with B.C.
There are some projects already underway in the area that incorporate the Housing Accelerator Fund, including a $7-million project in Squamish and a $2.7-million build in Pemberton—is there more coming for the Sea to Sky?
There’s an additional $400 million for the Housing Accelerator Fund, so I am encouraging Whistler to re-apply for it, because the support that fund is creating is to get things permitted faster—that’s a key part of the problem. We also need to build differently—we need to build more homes in factories: We need to build more prefabricated homes, we need to do more modular homes, and we have a lot of great companies based in Squamish that are doing just that.
We have a challenge on the labour side, and we have funding to speed up foreign credential recognition so that people can get certified by B.C. to practice in their trades.
On the immigration side, we have curtailed our study permits and our temporary permits as well, which on one hand was to deal with some of the abuse we’re seeing in the university sector, and on the temporary foreign worker side, we don’t have the same labour demand we did in the pandemic, so that made sense as well.
The Sea to Sky is growing very quickly … there is more we can do, and we have to pull on all these levers.
Health-care and childcare are major issues in B.C. and Canada. Are you pleased with what we see in this budget on that?
It’s a huge challenge in Canada and B.C., and certainly in the fast-growing Sea to Sky region. One of the great things about this budget is that it provides student loan forgiveness whether you’re a doctor, nurse, dentist, dental hygienist, and early learning childcare coordinator if you’re going to go work in a rural area. The Sea to Sky is all considered a rural area, so that will be important in attracting more people to work in those places. We don’t have enough people right now.
We’re also in the process of rolling out the largest expansion of health-care in a generation with the dental-care benefits, which is going to provide dental insurance to 9 million low- to middle-income Canadians.
We’re going to support building more spaces with a billion-dollar investment in early learning childcare and training more positions. We’re launching the first phase of the pharmacare program which is going to cover both diabetes medication and universal contraceptives.
The other part is we’re launching the national school food program. This is really important to ensure that children get the best start in life and are well-fed, so that they’re in the best position to learn in schools. We’re working very closely with what the provinces are doing to make sure we provide food to children.
What do you see in the budget that is going to help Sea to Sky residents with cost of living?
Ten-dollar-a-day childcare is critical. We have 180 spaces now that are $10 a day in Sea to Sky childcare services. [The budget] is going to provide grants and low-interest loans to build even more spaces, which is the challenge that we have.
We’ve seen more positive trends in inflation generally—it’s been in the Bank of Canada’s target range for three straight months under three per cent. And food inflation has been coming down very quickly, which is important.
At the same time, we’ve made a number of changes to the Competition Act to allow us to deal with some of the anti-competitive behaviour that is preventing more businesses from getting into the grocery sector.
We’re also making a few more changes through legislation that’s going through right now, but the challenge with that is they’re not going to immediately make those changes, but change the long-term outlook.
It’s part of a whole suite of [policies] to have more competition. It will make a very big difference.
The budget talks about the strength of tourism for the Canadian economy, with a focus on Indigenous tourism. Can you talk about federal support for this sector, which is a major pillar of the Sea to Sky economy?
It may be the largest sector in the Sea to Sky. The support we have for the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) is very important. We are fortunate that there is incredible Indigenous tourist attractions like the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre. We want to make sure we support more of those types of attractions. Projections are that Indigenous tourism can grow three-fold between now and 2030, so it’s really important that we work with ITAC on that.
What are some other items that stand out for you that will be important for Sea to Sky residents?
We could easily spend an hour going through all the different housing measures here because from my point of view, that is what this budget is all about.
It’s really also about generational fairness, making sure that young people in Canada have a good shot at success. As a millennial myself, this really resonates with me. No issue is as critical as housing, so I’m very pleased we’re taking the comprehensive approach to tackling that that we are, but I think that’s a cross-cutting issue you could say is right through this budget.
Also making sure we invest in sectors that are going to be really important as we go forward, such as investments in Artificial Intelligence—Canada’s got a lot of potential and expertise, as well as making it easier for entrepreneurs to start up a business, having a more generous tax structure for that with how we’re going to treat capital gains for entrepreneurs, and finding ways of reforming some of our science and research tax credits so they’re better able to commercialize some of the innovative companies that are starting up in Canada.
Are you confident the incoming budget bill will pass as presented given feedback from the Conservatives and the NDP?
I’m quite confident that this budget is going to pass.
There is that political posturing that’s happening. We know the NDP will vote in favour, we know the Conservatives and the Bloc will not. But that’s to be expected.
From the Conservative perspective, I don’t know how you vote against a national school food program, or having people be able to get access to the medicine that they need. I don’t know how they vote against having a comprehensive plan to tackle housing, so they’re going to have to answer for that because of course they have no plan for any of these things.
Frankly, this is a budget we can be very proud of. I think it addresses the issues that we are seeing in Canada that need to be addressed now. I look forward to the debates on this, and I look forward to when these measures come to the finance committee, which I am on. I want to make sure they’re done in the best possible way, and I look forward to having debates with my colleagues from the different parties.
The budget, having been tabled, will now go through a few weeks of sittings in Ottawa. The budget and associated legislation will need to be voted on and passed before the end of June when parliament wraps for summer.
Check back with Pique for more on the upcoming federal budget, including reaction from local Conservative candidate Keith Roy.
