Remarks by the Deputy Prime Minister on legislation to make life more affordable, build more homes, and grow the economy

We are also introducing labour requirements to our Clean Technology, Clean Hydrogen, Clean Electricity, and Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage investment tax credits. These requirements are about ensuring that Canadian workers directly benefit from our investment tax credits by requiring businesses who take advantage of these credits to pay a prevailing union wage and to create apprenticeship opportunities if they want to receive the maximum level of benefit from these tax credits.

November 28, 2023 - Ottawa, Ontario

Good afternoon.

I’ll speak first about the measures I tabled today.

I will then turn it over to Minister Champagne, who will speak to the work we are doing through our Fall Economic Statement to enhance competition and stabilize prices.

Then we’ll pass it over to Minister Fraser, who will speak about the measures in our Fall Economic Statement that will build more homes, faster, and then to Minister Anand, who will speak to the work our government is doing to crack down on junk fees.

This morning, I tabled the Notice of Ways and Means Motion for the Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, which is the next step in our government’s economic plan.

There are three aspects of this legislation that I would like to focus on.

First, we are making life more affordable for Canadians.

As Minister Champagne will speak about, we are making generational changes to competition law in Canada, which will help to stabilize prices and provide more choice for Canadians.

We are lifting the GST and HST on counselling and psychotherapy services so that people can receive the support and mental health care they need.

We are extending Employment Insurance to parents who adopt, and we are introducing a new leave for federally regulated workers who are grieving from miscarriages—because every family, no matter how it comes together, needs time to bond, and every woman should have time to heal from the painful loss of a pregnancy.

Second, as Minister Fraser will tell you, we are building more homes, faster.

We have already taken significant action this fall to build more than 100,000 new homes across Canada.

One of the major steps we have taken was removing the GST on new purpose-built rental housing, including co-operative housing corporations.

This is about making the math work for builders, in order to incentivize them to build more homes that would otherwise not move forward to construction. And most importantly, it is about building more homes for Canadians, faster.

Third, we are building an economy that works for everyone—with good jobs that people can count on.

And so, today, I am so glad to announce that we are delivering the investment tax credit for Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage and the investment tax credit for Clean Technology. These are the first two of our five clean economy investment tax credits.

When the parliamentary process is complete—the Notice of Ways and Means Motion I tabled today, and the subsequent legislation—it will enshrine these investment tax credits into law. The money will be there for businesses to make use of them and to make investment decisions based on them and, most crucially, to make investments that will create great careers for more Canadians today and tomorrow.

Our plan is working. In the first half of this year, Canada received the most foreign direct investment per capita of any country in the G7—and the third most investment, in gross dollar terms, in the entire world.

The tax credits we are delivering today will build on this record—by bringing more investment to Canada, helping our companies to grow, and, critically, creating more great jobs for Canadians across the country.

We are also introducing labour requirements to our Clean Technology, Clean Hydrogen, Clean Electricity, and Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage investment tax credits. These requirements are about ensuring that Canadian workers directly benefit from our investment tax credits by requiring businesses who take advantage of these credits to pay a prevailing union wage and to create apprenticeship opportunities if they want to receive the maximum level of benefit from these tax credits.

This is the first time in Canadian history that this has been done—and it is further proof of our commitment to ensure that our economic plan is focused on workers, and delivers for Canadian workers and their families.

Thank you very much.