Welcome to The Level’s newsletter! This is our first one, and yes, we’ll be tinkering with it as we go. The idea is we’ll be sending you regular updates each time we publish (currently a few times each week), focusing on what we believe are the biggest news stories and cultural discussions happening in Canada and abroad.
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So the federal budget passed this week after a fairly dramatic couple of weeks, which is good news for anyone who didn’t want another election. But lost in the discussion of all this is – how is this budget for regular Canadians?
Some highlights in the budget include a reduction in the size of the public service, new tax write-offs for industry, investments in infrastructure and defence, as well as cuts to immigration.
And while this budget was largely a response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s upending of the global trade system, and keeping Canada’s economy afloat as a result, there is some help in there for average Canadians.
And yet – many Canadians are still questioning whether this is enough relief from the high costs of living. There are very few new initiatives in this budget to make daily life any cheaper for us regular folks. Groceries will still be expensive and affordable housing will still be out of reach for many.
And, in an effort to save money, the government wants to eliminate 40,000 positions in the public service, which is about to make life even more expensive for those losing their jobs.