Federal Budgets

Government plan includes cautious forward movement for low-income Canadians and refugees FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Ottawa, ON: March 22, 2017 — Federal Budget 2017 inches forward but requires Canadians to continue to wait for full measures that address poverty in Canada and climate change. “With Budget 2017, Finance Minister Bill Morneau has made tentative financial commitments to key…

Submission to the Standing Committee on Finance Pre-Budget Consultations

August 2016
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CPJ believes that the Government of Canada must act on its commitments and develop policy that is grounded in the common good. We encourage the government to take a holistic perspective in the preparation of Budget 2017 – one that addresses the needs of the most vulnerable in Canadian society and contributes to the well-being of both people and the planet. 

Significant progress, glaring omissions FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Ottawa, ON: March 22, 2016 — The 2016 Federal Budget, released today by Finance Minister Bill Morneau, includes significant measures that work to advance public justice in Canada. However, Citizens for Public Justice, noted that this budget fails to live up to the federal government’s commitments to national plans…

“Growing the Middle Class” is the title of the first budget presented by Canada’s new federal government. The Liberals hope that citizens will find “sunny ways” inside these pages – and in several ways we should. But this budget also raises some important, longer-term challenges for Canadians.

This year’s document calls for “structured spending” that would increase federal government spending to $37.9 billion, or almost $9 billion more than the new Liberal government must spend to meet its own election promises. As well, “The Alternative Federal Budget raises the bar on trans­parency by providing an accounting of the distribu­tional impacts on Canadian families of all proposed changes in taxation, transfers, and program spend­ing—something no government budget, federal or provincial, has ever undertaken.”

Submission to the Standing Committee on Finance Pre-Budget Consultations

February 2016
Download the brief
CPJ believes that the federal government has a moral commitment to develop policy that is grounded in the common good, giving priority to addressing the needs of the most vulnerable in Canadian society and for ensuring that Canada contributes to the well-being of people and the planet.

Budget 2015 ignores the 4.8 million Canadians who live in poverty. And with major climate negotiations coming later this year, it ignores the climate crisis that future generations will have to deal with. It ignores the tens of thousands of vulnerable refugees who come to Canada looking for a better life.

Budgets are documents that clarify our values – they say where our hearts really lie (they may also show how we “lie” if we do not walk the talk!) Politicians (just like faith communities, perhaps) may profess in speech to believe in the greater good. Where and how we spend money, and from where and…

November 2014
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160 organizations from across Canada have come together to oppose parts of federal Bill C-43. An open letter was sent to Finance Minister Joe Oliver calling for the withdrawal of sections 172 and 173 in this Bill.

Enhancing the WITB would remove some significant disincentives to paid work in the formal economy, ease pressure on social assistance, and lift working adults out of poverty.