Budget 2023 includes important investment measures but lacks fiscal restraint
The Business Council believes that the federal budget includes important measures to attract and retain business investment but the government’s worrisome fiscal position risks undermining long-term economic growth. Robert Asselin and Goldy Hyder’s perspectives were featured extensively in media coverage of Budget 2023.
“I’m worried about the fiscal framework now. It’s much more shaky than it was in the fall.”
Robert Asselin, Senior Vice President, Business Council of Canada
“It’s obvious that after COVID, there’s less travel in government in general. It’s obvious that because they were at historically high spending on consultants, spending will come down a bit. So those for me are not like spending reviews. They’re more like natural lapses in the fiscal framework.”
Robert Asselin, Senior Vice President, Business Council of Canada
“On the IRA responses, I thought some of the responses (were) good. The tax credits are focused on the things we need to get right including electricity, carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS), clean technologies. But execution and implementation are super important.”
Robert Asselin, Senior Vice President, Business Council of Canada
“There’s nothing on research and development, nothing on industrial research.”
Robert Asselin, Senior Vice President, Business Council of Canada
“[The new tax credits] seem to be fairly well-targeted. Whether they’ll have the take-up they want, nobody knows.”
Robert Asselin, Senior Vice President, Business Council of Canada
“Canadians were promised fiscal restraint, but instead this budget increases the national debt burden at a time of higher interest rates. More of every taxpayer dollar will now have to go toward servicing the debt.”
Goldy Hyder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Business Council of Canada
“The things that the government has done today to announce the opportunities for growth to happen, hopefully they work, hopefully we implement them well, and hopefully, we can create the jobs and the clean economy we are all looking for.”
Goldy Hyder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Business Council of Canada
“The bets that are being placed here are about the greenification of our economy and that’s something that were going to be able to benefit from in the decades to come.”
Goldy Hyder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Business Council of Canada
“We support the government’s response, we support the intention of what they are trying to do, however, there is a second half of this and it is the need of a regulatory framework that allows that capital to be deployed with confidence. “
Goldy Hyder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Business Council of Canada
“In Canada, it takes a lot of time to issue permitting and to get some of the big stuff done. We have to fix that part otherwise I’m worried the tax credits on their own won’t be sufficient.”
Robert Asselin, Senior Vice President, Business Council of Canada
“Here we are two years later trying to come up with tax credits that are generally good, but as a fulsome response from the government, hard to measure as a whole.”
Robert Asselin, Senior Vice President, Business Council of Canada
