PO Podcast 144 - Federal Budget 2022

Policy Options Podcast

The federal government tabled the 2022 budget on April 7. Coming in the third year of the pandemic, hot off the Liberal-NDP agreement, and the escalating Russian invasion of Ukraine, the federal budget responds both to immediate needs and long-term priorities. On this special crossover episode, we share a conversation from the Voice Above podcast, with host Kate Todd talking to Charles Breton, the Executive Director of the Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation, and Colin Busby, a Research Director at the IRPP, about what the budget includes, what it lacks, and what its impacts will be in areas from housing to healthcare. The new budget evaluated the emergency pandemic response programs, phased out some and kept others. It included various policies meant to tackle the extreme rise in housing prices, though our experts are not optimistic that the housing allocations will have the intended effect, especially without significant municipal and provincial cooperation. While there is funding for the dentalcare program – an outcome of the Liberal-NDP agreement – implementation might be the larger hurdle. On the other hand, the budget is mum on the question of healthcare funding: how it will be shared between the federal and provincial governments and the strings that come with federal funding. All that and more in this quick but deep dive into the 2022 federal budget. https://anchor.fm/voice-above