Latest news with #GovernmentSpending
Globe and Mail
30-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Politics Insider: Conservatives to vote against federal spending bill
Hello, welcome to Politics Insider. Let's look at what happened today. Pierre Poilievre says his party will vote against the federal government's request to spend $486.9-billion on government programs and transfers. The federal Conservative Leader's announcement today will be an early test of Prime Minister Mark Carney's minority mandate. The Liberals have 169 seats in the House of Commons, three short of a majority. The Conservatives are the Official Opposition, with 144 seats, while the Bloc Québécois hold 22, the New Democrats seven and the Green Party one. Stephanie Levitz reports that to pass anything through the Commons, the Liberals will therefore need the support of MPs from other parties. Meanwhile, Trans Mountain Corp. expects to pay Ottawa $1.25-billion this year. Emma Graney reports that the payment is due partly to record shipments on the federally owned oil pipeline and a refinancing deal that has reduced costs during the first year of its expanded capacity. May 1 marked one year since the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline system began commercial operations to pump crude from Alberta to the West Coast. In 2018, Ottawa signed a $4.5-billion deal to buy the pipeline, and see through its expansion. However, costs increased to $34-billion. Mexico's non-committal response to Carney's G7 invite reflects domestic focus, Trump doubts: 'I haven't yet decided whether I'll attend or not, but it's a possibility. I thanked him for the invitation,' Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said this week. 'We're evaluating, given the current situation in the country, the possibility of attending.' Quebec tables bill to begin removing interprovincial trade barriers: Christopher Skeete, Quebec's economy minister, tabled a bill today that facilitates the trade of goods from other provinces and the territories of Canada through a unilateral recognition of product manufacturing standards. Federal Justice Department invokes national security in case of elite soldier's assault of spouse: The victim in the case and her lawyer accuse the federal government of using Section 38 of the Canada Evidence Act to avoid the embarrassment of the public knowing that an elite soldier had violently attacked his spouse. Ottawa's Rockcliffe Park designated a National Historic Site: In a ceremony today, Parks Canada formally offered the designation to the 1.8-square-kilometre neighbourhood that is home to members of Canada's elite, and diplomats. Prime Minister's Day: Mark Carney delivered remarks to the annual conference and trade show of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, held in Ottawa. Carney also met privately with federation President Rebecca Bligh and Carole Saab, the federation's CEO. Party Leaders: On Parliament Hill, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre held a news conference. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May attended the House of Commons, and was scheduled to speak to an evening gathering of the Young Politicians of Canada's National Youth Roundtable. No schedules released for other party leaders. Plante will skip NDP leadership race: Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante will not be seeking the federal NDP leadership when she leaves municipal politics this year after two terms in office. Her name has come up as a possible contender to succeed Jagmeet Singh, but her communications director Marikym Gaudreault said today she has no interest in the federal job. 'Although she wishes to continue changing the world after her mandate – making society more just, inclusive and green – she has clarified that politics is just one of the many possible paths to achieving that goal,' Gaudreault said in a statement. Ford and Moe: Doug Ford's office announced the Ontario premier would be signing a memorandum of understanding with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe in Saskatoon on Sunday as first ministers gather for their first meeting in the province in about 40 years. No other details were provided. Sidhu in Paris: International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu will be in Paris for most of next week to attend the ministerial council meeting for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, participate in World Trade Organization meetings and host a G7 trade ministers' meeting. Quote of the Day: 'I know that all members of this House, rarely united on anything, can unite behind this remarkable Oilers team.' – Conservative MP Mike Lake, during members' statements in the House of Commons today, on the Edmonton Oilers. Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke today to the annual conference of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in Ottawa, then participated in a fireside chat with the federation's president, Rebecca Bligh. Where is Bligh a city councillor? Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for the answer. Canada wants to kill 400 ostriches. Sadly, it's the right thing to do. Overstaffed, overpaid and underperforming, the CPP investment fund is in need of a sharp course correction. Got a news tip that you'd like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@ Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop. The answer to today's question: Bligh has been a Vancouver city councillor since 2018.
RNZ News
22-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Words and Numbers: Beginning Budget Day in the House
Budget 2025. Photo: VNP/Louis Collins In Parliament's debating chamber Budget Day begins as a surprisingly sedate affair. It makes up for it later, mostly with sheer volume, but at the beginning it is both formal and formulaic. The first Budget-related business - while everyone is on tenterhooks for the big reveal - is only about the previous Budget. The tabling of the Supplementary Estimates is a palpable let-down for the public in the galleries. This document is an update on last year's Budget, looking to update permission from the House for spending that has deviated from the previous Budget. When the Budget is tabled it comes with such a slew of related materials it feels like an afterthought. We call it the Budget, and Budget Day but the naming is clumsy. The Budget is an event, a concept, a speech, a number of documents, and a lot of numbers. It is also, in part, a piece of legislation that permits the government to spend money in an agreed way. It is a trove of documents associated with the bill that detail the actual spending plan. In common parlance it often refers to the Budget Statement - the speech given by the minister of finance. This year, that is Nicola Willis. All Budget statements are a sales pitch rather than a fair summary. The most telling aspects are chosen, polished and displayed for their best angles. The usual focus for ministers of finance is on positivity. Things are heading in the right direction, improving, building, advancing, etc towards a better, richer tomorrow. Few are brave enough to list the cuts they plan (Ruth Richardson may be considered an especially brave exception here). Instead they focus on new programmes and new spending. You will likely still hear talk about savings or reprioritisation though. They sound gentler. This Budget, Nicola Willis noted savings of $5.3 billion a year. "The result," she said "of ongoing efforts by multiple ministers." I expect that means that many different government entities will have reduced funding. Specifics were not carefully enumerated in her speech, but she did note savings of $2.7b per year achieved by walking back Pay Equity legislation. Finance Minister Nicola Willis on Budget Day. Photo: VNP/Louis Collins Willis also noted that "savings have been made by closing a number of tagged contingencies and from reviewing the value for money of grants and fund across government." Willis continued: "This is not austerity. In fact, it is what you do to avoid austerity, because getting the books in shape ensures New Zealand has financial security and choices into the future, and, as I am about to set out, savings in this Budget have allowed us to make much-needed investments in health, in education, in law and order, and in rebuilding our defence force." Her Budget Speech was relatively short, at a little over half an hour long by my watch. Despite the relative brevity, this article can't possible canvas it all any more than Willis's speech could hope to canvas the vast detail in the Budget itself. It doesn't hope to. As I already mentioned, the purpose is to sell the Budget, not to read it. The second speech is equally political (they all are). Second is always the Leader of the Opposition. This year Chris Hipkins. The Leader of the Opposition has a few jobs in this second speech. Traditionally it begins by moving an amendment to the question being debated - to turn it into a no-confidence motion instead. In theory, the debate from this point is about that question as well as the Budget. Opposition Leaders also seek to influence press coverage by naming the Budget with an insulting moniker that journalists will pick up. They hope to portray it in a fashion that will negatively affect public opinion toward both the Budget and government. Hipkins used a few options to see what might stick. I noticed both "a scramble without the lollies", and "the Budget that left women out", were both picked up by media. Labour leader Chris Hipkins. Photo: VNP/Louis Collins It is always interesting to listen to all of the speeches in their entirety. The speeches from across the House often mirror each other, blow for blow. For example, the "this is not austerity" section above from Nicola Willis and this from Chris Hipkins. "They are choosing austerity and cuts. And austerity is exactly what it is. It failed in the United Kingdom and it will fail here. It will leave New Zealand a poorer country and it says to the next generation of New Zealanders, who are already giving up in record numbers, that they may as well leave the country because there is no hope here." Parliamentary speeches are not just policy positions, they are often like aural Rorschach tests, brimming with signifiers of person, party, culture, and attitude. The prime minister is something of an afterthought on Budget day, speaking after the leader of the opposition. Again this year Christopher Luxon took the unusual approach of launching not into praise of the new Budget but into the opposition. "Well, hasn't it been a shambolic year for the Labour Party - hasn't it? I have to say: has there ever been a leader of the opposition with less substance than Chris Hipkins?" He did speak about the Budget, but it took about 1700 words on attack before he got there. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. Photo: VNP/Louis Collins The full Budget Debate is a lengthy affair and will include speeches from much of Parliament, but on Budget Day it only gets as far as the party leaders (or their surrogates). At that point it typically gets shelved for a few days of debating about budget and budget-adjacent legislation under urgency. This year the government has listed 12 different bills to debate under urgency, six of them through all stages, six for only a first reading. MPs are going to have a long week. *RNZ's The House, with insights into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with funding from Parliament's Office of the Clerk. Enjoy our articles or podcast at RNZ.
RNZ News
22-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Budget 2025: Coalition claws back savings from pay equity, KiwiSaver, Best Start
The coalition has slashed an average $5.3b government spending for each of the next four years in its latest Budget - about half of which comes from its controversial pay equity overhaul. Other savings have been found by halving the government's KiwiSaver contributions , tightening welfare for 18-and-19-year-olds, and fully means-testing the Best Start child payment. The cuts are counterbalanced by new spending of $6.7b a year - mostly through increased budgets for health , education law and order, and defence. That sum also includes a new $1.7b "Investment Boost" tax incentive for businesses - billed as the Budget's "centrepiece" - and some targeted cost-of-living support. Unveiling her second Budget as finance minister, Nicola Willis pitched it as "responsible". "This is not austerity - far from it. In fact, it is what you do to avoid austerity," Willis said. Budget documents reveal the tightening of the pay equity regime - passed under urgency in early May - will net the government $2.7b every year. It has also "repurposed" a one-off $1.8b from previous contingencies related to the scheme into other capital expenditure. Willis said the savings amounted to about $12.8b in total over the next four years. She told reporters the scheme, when set up in 2020, was expected to cost just $3.7b over that period, which should give a sense of the "scale of the blow-out". The pay equity changes mean workers now face a higher threshold to prove they are underpaid due to sex discrimination. The government had earlier said the changes would save "billions of dollars" but refused to divulge the exact sum until Budget Day. Willis stressed "a significant sum" remained to meet potential costs of future pay equity settlements under the new regime. "The government anticipates there will be pay rises in female-dominated public sector workforces achieved through normal collective bargaining." As widely expected, the Budget includes significant changes to the KiwiSaver retirement savings scheme , affecting employers, employees and the government. The annual government contribution has been halved to a maximum of $260.72 from July and scrapped altogether for those earning more than $180,000 a year. The default rate of employee and employer contributions will be gradually increased from 3 percent to 4 percent over a three-year-period, though workers can temporarily opt to stay at 3 percent for a year at a time. The scheme will also be expanded to fully include 16-and-17-year-olds from April next year. From April next year, the Best Start child payment scheme will be fully income tested in the same way the second and third years are, with payments cut off when a family earns more than $97,000 a year. It would save $211m over four years. In a surprise change, eligibility for the Jobseeker benefit is also being tightened. Eighteen-and-19-year-olds will be subject to a "parental assistance test" to prove their parents cannot support them. That's expected to recoup $163.7m over four years. Willis made a point of highlighting a "major new tax incentive" - beginning immediately - designed to encourage business investment. The "Investment Boost" policy allows businesses to deduct 20 percent of the cost of new assets - such as machinery or tools - from taxable income on top of normal depreciation. That means those businesses will face a much lower tax bill in the year of purchase. Willis said the policy would apply to all new assets purchased in New Zealand, as well as new and used assets imported from overseas. It would cover commercial buildings but not land or residential buildings. She said it was expected to lift GDP by 1 percent and wages by 1.5 percent over the next two decades. "Our government knows businesses have been knocked around by challenging local and international economic conditions. This tax incentive shows that we are backing them to succeed," Willis said. The new tax credit was expected to cost $1.7b a year in reduced revenue. As teased, the Budget includes some targeted cost-of-living support through an increase to Working for Families abatement thresholds and rates. The changes are expected to deliver an extra $14 a fortnight on average to about 142,000 families, most earning less than $100,000 a year. The SuperGold card rates rebate will also be expanded to provide more support for up to 66,000 more retirees. A new income abatement threshold is being added and the maximum rebate lifted from $790 to $805. The expansion would cost $154m over four years. As well, the Budget includes $91m over that period to allow doctors to issue prescriptions for up to 12 months for medicines "if it is clinically appropriate and safe to do so." Most government departments have received very limited or no extra funding this year, meaning they will have to absorb increases in costs, such as wages. Health (up $7b), education (up $1.5b), law and order (up $1.1b), and defence (up $1.9b) are the main exceptions regarding operating funding over four years. In late April, Willis primed New Zealanders to expect "tough but necessary" spending cuts to existing funding commitments, with new initiatives "strictly limited to the most important priorities". Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
22-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Budget 2025: Coalition claws back savings from pay equity, KiwiSaver in Budget, Best Start
The coalition has slashed an average $5.3b government spending for each of the next four years in its latest Budget - about half of which comes from its controversial pay equity overhaul. Other savings have been found by lving the government's KiwiSaver contributions tightening welfare for 18-and-19-year-olds, and fully means-testing the Best Start child payment. The cuts are counterbalanced by new spending of $6.7b a year - mostly through increased budgets for health , education law and order, and defence. That sum also includes a new $1.7b "Investment Boost" tax incentive for businesses - billed as the Budget's "centrepiece" - and some targeted cost-of-living support. Unveiling her second Budget as finance minister, Nicola Willis pitched it as "responsible". "This is not austerity - far from it. In fact, it is what you do to avoid austerity," Willis said. Budget documents reveal the tightening of the pay equity regime - passed under urgency in early May - will net the government $2.7b every year. It has also "repurposed" a one-off $1.8b from previous contingencies related to the scheme into other capital expenditure. Willis said the savings amounted to about $12.8b in total over the next four years. She told reporters the scheme, when set up in 2020, was expected to cost just $3.7b over that period, which should give a sense of the "scale of the blow-out". The pay equity changes mean workers now face a higher threshold to prove they are underpaid due to sex discrimination. The government had earlier said the changes would save "billions of dollars" but refused to divulge the exact sum until Budget Day. Willis stressed "a significant sum" remained to meet potential costs of future pay equity settlements under the new regime. "The government anticipates there will be pay rises in female-dominated public sector workforces achieved through normal collective bargaining." As widely expected, the Budget includes significant changes to the KiwiSaver retirement savings scheme , affecting employers, employees and the government. The annual government contribution has been halved to a maximum of $260.72 from July and scrapped altogether for those earning more than $180,000 a year. The default rate of employee and employer contributions will be gradually increased from 3 percent to 4 percent over a three-year-period, though workers can temporarily opt to stay at 3 percent for a year at a time. The scheme will also be expanded to fully include 16-and-17-year-olds from April next year. From April next year, the Best Start child payment scheme will be fully income tested in the same way the second and third years are, with payments cut off when a family earns more than $97,000 a year. It would save $211m over four years. In a surprise change, eligibility for the Jobseeker benefit is also being tightened. Eighteen-and-19-year-olds will be subject to a "parental assistance test" to prove their parents cannot support them. That's expected to recoup $163.7m over four years. Willis made a point of highlighting a "major new tax incentive" - beginning immediately - designed to encourage business investment. The "Investment Boost" policy allows businesses to deduct 20 percent of the cost of new assets - such as machinery or tools - from taxable income on top of normal depreciation. That means those businesses will face a much lower tax bill in the year of purchase. Willis said the policy would apply to all new assets purchased in New Zealand, as well as new and used assets imported from overseas. It would cover commercial buildings but not land or residential buildings. She said it was expected to lift GDP by 1 percent and wages by 1.5 percent over the next two decades. "Our government knows businesses have been knocked around by challenging local and international economic conditions. This tax incentive shows that we are backing them to succeed," Willis said. The new tax credit was expected to cost $1.7b a year in reduced revenue. As teased, the Budget includes some targeted cost-of-living support through an increase to Working for Families abatement thresholds and rates. The changes are expected to deliver an extra $14 a fortnight on average to about 142,000 families, most earning less than $100,000 a year. The SuperGold card rates rebate will also be expanded to provide more support for up to 66,000 more retirees. A new income abatement threshold is being added and the maximum rebate lifted from $790 to $805. The expansion would cost $154m over four years. As well, the Budget includes $91m over that period to allow doctors to issue prescriptions for up to 12 months for medicines "if it is clinically appropriate and safe to do so." Most government departments have received very limited or no extra funding this year, meaning they will have to absorb increases in costs, such as wages. Health (up $7b), education (up $1.5b), law and order (up $1.1b), and defence (up $1.9b) are the main exceptions regarding operating funding over four years. In late April, Willis primed New Zealanders to expect "tough but necessary" spending cuts to existing funding commitments, with new initiatives "strictly limited to the most important priorities". Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
