Reducing Everyday Costs

The government is taking action to make life cost less and put more money back in your pocket. Our economic plan is reducing everyday costs, cracking down on hidden fees, strengthening competition—especially in the grocery sector, making banking easier and more affordable and helping all communities.

Key measures in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement to reduce everyday costs include:

• A tax break for all Canadians to help them buy the things they need and save for the things they want. This two-month GST/HST break for holiday essentials, like groceries, restaurant meals, drinks, snacks, children’s clothing and gifts, is already providing real relief at the cash register.
• $10-a-day child care. The federal government’s Canada-wide system of $10-a-day child care continues to put more money in the pockets of middle class families and help more parents, especially mothers, have a career. It is already saving some families up to $14,300 per child, per year—with 250,000 new spaces being created by 2026.
• More generous Canada Carbon Rebate rural top-ups. For 2024-25, the Canada Carbon Rebate is worth up to $1,800 for an urban family of four, with up to an additional $360 going to a rural family of four through the 20 per cent rural top-up. Rural Canadians receive this in recognition that living in smaller communities often means increased spending on travel and energy. The government intends to enable about 1.6 million more rural Canadians to also receive the 20 per cent rural top-up, starting next year.  
• Stronger competition rules, leading to lower prices and improved services. This year, the federal government has made bold reforms to competition and anti-trust law. This will help to stop anti-competitive mergers that raise prices and limit choices for consumers, and crackdown on anti-competitive practices by large dominant companies that drive up prices.
• Implementing Consumer-Driven Banking to enable the adoption of new financial tools that will make it easier for Canadians to develop a budget, manage their household expenses, and hit their savings goals.
• Better low-cost and no-cost bank accounts. The federal government and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada have negotiated modernized low-cost and no-cost account agreements, including at least thirteen banks, including Canada’s six largest banks. Banks that sign will begin offering modernized $0 and $4 accounts by December 1, 2025.
• Cracking down on predatory lending, to further protect vulnerable Canadians. The 2024 Fall Economic Statement proposes measures to prohibit the sale of credit insurance products in connection with a payday loan, and to require a minimum term on payday loans of 42 days— and for lenders to accept payments in installments.
• Penalizing predatory debt advisors. To protect Canadians who experience difficult financial situations, the 2024 Fall Economic Statement is proposing stricter penalties on unlicensed debt advisors who provide irresponsible advice on consumer proposals and bankruptcy.
• Making automatic tax filing a reality, to help the nearly 20 per cent of Canadians with an income below $20,000 who do not file a tax return. The government is developing an approach that would allow the Canada Revenue Agency to automatically file a tax return on behalf of certain lower-income Canadians, to help them receive many significant federal benefits they are eligible for, but might not receive.
• More generous pensions for seniors. The 2024 Fall Economic Statement confirms that improvements to the Canada Pension Plan will take effect on January 1, 2025—including a larger Death Benefit for certain contributors, a partial children's benefit for part-time students, and the extension of eligibility for the disabled contributor’s child’s benefit.
• Exempting the Canada Disability Benefit from tax, to help ensure recipients keep the full value of this benefit, designed to reduce poverty and increase the financial well-being of low-income, working-age persons who are eligible for the Disability Tax Credit.