Deputy Prime Minister’s Foreword

Canada has made a remarkable recovery from the COVID recession.

The strongest economic growth in the G7 over the last year. 830,000 more Canadians employed than before the pandemic. Near-record low unemployment. A record 85.7 per cent labour force participation rate for Canadian women in their prime working years, supported by our Canada-wide system of affordable early learning and child care. Inflation has fallen for eight months in a row, and the Bank of Canada predicts that it will fall to just 2.6 per cent by the end of the year.

With these strong economic fundamentals, Budget 2023 comes at an important moment for our country—and at an important moment for the world.

In the near-term, we must contend with a slowing global economy, elevated interest rates around the world, and inflation that is still too high.

In the months and years to come, we must seize the remarkable opportunities for Canada that are presented by two fundamental shifts in the global economy: the race to build the clean economies of the 21st century, and our allies’ accelerating efforts to friendshore their economies by building their critical supply chains through democracies like our own.

Budget 2023 is a direct response to these essential challenges, and it delivers:

1. New, targeted inflation relief for the Canadians who need it most.
2. Stronger public health care, including dental care for millions of Canadians.
3. Significant investments to build Canada’s clean economy, create good middle class careers, and help usher in a new era of economic prosperity for Canadians.
4. A responsible fiscal plan that will see Canada maintain the lowest deficit and the lowest net debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7.

I am proud to introduce Budget 2023: our plan to build a stronger, more sustainable, and more secure Canadian economy—for everyone.

We have the remarkable good fortune to live in the greatest country in the world.

Canada is filled with people who can do big things, and I have never been more optimistic about the future of our country than I am today.

At a challenging time in a challenging world, there is no better place to be than Canada.

 

The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, P.C., M.P.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance