Budget 2022: A look at the highlights of the federal Liberal fiscal plan

OTTAWA - Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled the 2022 federal budget on Thursday. Here are some of the highlights:

- $452.3 billion in new spending on projected revenue of $408.4 billion for a deficit of $52.8 billion. The debt to GDP ratio is pegged at 45.1 per cent.

- $4 billion over the next five years to launch a new fund in the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation to help cities and municipalities create more affordable housing, and $1.5 billion over two years to the CMHC's Rapid Housing Initiative to create 6,000 new affordable housing units with at least one-quarter of the funding dedicated to women-focused projects.

- $625 million over four years, starting in 2023-24, for child care, to help the provinces and territories build new facilities and make new investments. The new funding is a followup to the various federal child-care agreements with the provinces and territories after they raised concerns that non-profit and public providers were facing soaring real estate and building material costs.

- $1 billion over five years, starting in 2022-23, to create an independent federal innovation and investment agency. The measure is designed to spur economic growth and address the fact that Canada is ranked last in the G7 in spending on research and development by business.

- The defence budget got new money with more than $8 billion pledged over five years to better equip the Canadian Armed Forces, reinforce cybersecurity and support a culture of change. The budget contained no road map on whether this would be enough to boost Canada's defence spending to the NATO target of two per cent of GDP, as the alliance works to bolster Europe following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

- Up to $1 billion in new loan resources for the Ukrainian government through the International Monetary Fund to help keep its embattled government operating.

- $4 billion over six years, starting in 2021-22, to remove systemic barriers to First Nations children receiving services in health, education and social services. The funds are part of the government's commitment to Jordan's Principle, which started in 2016.

- $5.3 billion over five years starting in 2022-23 and $1.7 billion ongoing to Health Canada to provide dental care to Canadians as a result of the Liberal-NDP agreement. The plan will start with children under 12 in 2022 at an initial cost of $300 million.

- $1.7 billion over five years starting in 2022-23 to help make zero-emission vehicles more affordable for people. The Canadian Infrastructure Bank will spend $500 million over five years to build infrastructure to support the 1,500 charging stations that the government has promised to build throughout Canada.

- $547 million over four years starting in 2022-23 to help businesses upgrade their fleets to zero-emission vehicles.

Meanwhile, here are some of the smaller promises in the budget that you might have missed:

- $1.9 billion over 24 years to build and operate the new Canadarm3 for the next generation NASA Lunar Gateway project.

- $1.3 billion over the next five years and $331.2 million on going to support the long-term stability of Canada's asylum system to better help people seeking refuge from violence and persecution.

- $159 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, to protect Canadian post-secondary and research institutions from foreign intelligence agencies.

- $593.3 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, to help provinces and territories support projects to prevent gender-based violence and help survivors.

- $20 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, to better understand the long-term impacts of COVID-19.

- $16 million over two years to help detect and protect Prince Edward Island from potato wart, which has disrupted sales of the province's potatoes to the United States.

- $40.9 million over five years and $9.7 million ongoing to federal granting councils to support scholarships for promising Black student researchers.

- $183.1 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, to reduce plastic waste, building on a 2018 G7 commitment.

- $55.1 million over three years, starting in 2022-23, to protect British Columbia's old growth forests.

- $329.4 million over six years, starting in 2022-23, to triple the size of the Agricultural Clean Technology Program

- $469.5 million over six years, starting in 2022-23, to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to expand the Agricultural Climate Solutions program's On-Farm Climate Action Fund.

- $100 million over three years, starting in 2022-23, to help Health Canada deal with the opioid addiction crisis.

- $25 million over two years, starting in 2022-23, to start a pilot project to make menstrual products more widely available to those facing barriers to them.

- $100 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, to create a forthcoming federal action plan to support LGTBQ2 rights.

- $89.9 million over five years and $8.8 million ongoing to help the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

- $4 million in 2022-23 to help Canadian Heritage support the Muslims in Canada Archive to acquire, preserve and make accessible records of the Muslim people in Canada.

- $15 million to media initiatives to support local journalism and stories about diversity.

- $20 million over two years, starting in 2022-23, to expand the New Horizons for Seniors Program to raise the quality of community participation for seniors.

- $20 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, for research to better understand dementia and support brain health research.

- Eliminating the excise duty on low-alcohol beer, with no more than 0.5 per cent alcohol, on Canada Day 2022.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2022.