Finance Minister outlines priorities as pre-budget week kicks off

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland outlined some of the key government spending priorities as she kicked off a week of pre-budget events.

Speaking to a group of electrician students at a union training centre in Oshawa, Ont., Freeland emphasized that the federal government will continue to invest in the transition to a clean economy.

Freeland said it would be reckless to pull back on such spending, even as she said the government will show more fiscal restraint in the budget overall as part of efforts to rein in inflation.

Her signal of tighter spending control comes after the government has faced criticism for helping fuel inflation with overly generous Covid-19 support and funding.

She said the government will still provide targeted relief for those most affected by rising prices, but that wider efforts to support Canadians would only make inflation worse.

Freeland said more spending on health care, child care, housing and skills training will also be coming as they are economic polices as well as social ones.

“Investments in our economic capacity are fiscally responsible, and failure to make the necessary investments in our economic capacity and in our economic future, that is irresponsible,” she said. “And that is reckless.”

The Canadian Press

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