Canadians give mixed reviews on fall accounting update as many find gaps in plans: Poll – Nationwide

Some Canadians aren’t entirely convinced by the federal government’s recent mid-year fiscal update, a new poll suggests, with many finding gaps in their economic plans.

Canadians overall see more investment to support summer jobs, interest-free student loans and faster energy project approvals, according to an Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News and released on Saturday. They seem happy.

However, other segments of the plan, such as finding savings in health care and government programs, did not see the same response.

According to Darrell Bricker, Global CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, Canadians “want everything.”

Bricker told Global News, “What we’re seeing in the data at the moment is that Canadians are ready to put their long-term problems aside and are more focused now.” We are facing an economic crisis.

Let’s see how most Canadians feel about the different branches of the Federal Economic Plan.

Many were dissatisfied with some of the economic renewal, with 79% saying the lack of new investment in health care in the plan would be a negative for Canada.

“They felt that the economic statement didn’t really address health care,” Bricker said, noting that older Canadians tended to be more dissatisfied than younger people.

“Young people now really support this idea of ​​spending money on people and economic activity, and they care less about health care because they don’t use it as much as older Canadians. It’s from.”

Only 5% of people over the age of 55 say they are not positive about investing in new health care, while 38% of those aged 18 to 36 support the move. I was.

In addition, women were found to be more likely than men to be unhappy with a lack of investment.

Bricker said men were more likely to be dissatisfied with policies about “tax cuts and budget deficit considerations” than health care.

26% of men view this positively compared to just 15% of women.

Data released earlier this month by Statistics Canada showed that women provide more unpaid care in Canada and suffer mental and physical health problems as a result of caregiving compared to men. Probability is high.

Compared with residents of Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta, residents of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Atlantic Canada, and Quebec were also more likely to be dissatisfied with their lack of investment in health care.

Bricker said that’s because the results follow Canada’s “political map.”

“Whatever is seen as positive in an economic statement, some people in British Columbia, Quebec, Atlantic Canada, and perhaps Ontario tend to see it relatively positively.

“But when you move between British Columbia and Ontario and start looking at the three provinces in between, even the positives aren’t always seen in the same light.

trendy now

• Buffalo in western New York completely swept away by blizzard due to lake impact

• Twitter headquarters lit up with Elon Musk insults amid office closures and employee departures

“Everything that comes out of Ottawa these days is very much defined by how people supported their government in their campaigns,” he added.

A fall update warning of a possible recession has put the cost of living on the minds of many Canadians.

Canadian inflation remains at 6.9% for the second month in a row, just barely below its all-time high. Many people who responded to the poll seem unhappy that the fiscal plan has no way to reduce the debt.

A total of 69% were unsatisfied with the lack of new funds directed at the Government of Canada’s debt service, and 70% said savings identified in current federal programs that would help reduce the funds added to the debt and other inefficiencies. .

“Canadians are not happy that no effort has been made to recoup the deficit,” Bricker said.

“They think the government should at least demonstrate its willingness to address Canada’s current deficit levels.”

A deficit of $36.4 billion was projected in this fiscal year’s interim budget update. That’s about $16 billion less than expected in the spring budget, partly because of high inflation.

The deficit will narrow over the next four years to a surplus of $4.5 billion during the 2027-28 fiscal year, according to the Fiscal Update.

The poll also suggests that an unexpected tax that allows Canadians to pay only if certain industries such as banks, grocery stores and the energy sector generate higher than normal profits is part of the plan. I asked them about their views on the absence of

42% of men view this positively compared to 39% of women.

“They want lower taxes, but they also want higher taxes on people who they think are making too much money,” Bricker said.

Aside from student loans and investments in natural resources, polls also showed that men were less likely than women to be bothered by policies not included in the plan.

As with investments in healthcare, more men (43%) consider it a plus that Canada’s carbon tax, GST or gas tax will not be cut or suspended.

Despite finding gaps in the fiscal update, most Canadians support many of the announcements made in the plan, with 8 out of 10 supporting summer jobs, youth employment strategies, job I was delighted to see that they were happy to invest $800 million over three years to support Placement.

The update also announced a $2.7 billion investment over five years to make all Canadian student loans and Canadian apprentice loans permanently interest-free. A poll showed that 7 out of 10 people saw the investment as positive for the country.

Three out of four were also pleased to see investment plans to accelerate the approval of natural resources and energy products. This investment is expected to bring him $1.28 billion over six years.

In addition, 7 in 10 Canadians also view positively the investment of $4 billion over 6 years to advance those eligible for Canadian Workers’ Benefits.

The benefits are refundable tax credits to help individuals and families who work but have low incomes, according to the federal government’s website.

Some Canadians were happy that the money was being invested in things like student loans and job placement, while others were frustrated that the money wasn’t being directed to other areas, such as tax enforcement. Some people do, Bricker says, but it can be “inconsistent.”

But “you can’t really have both,” he added.

“We could increase government spending, but obviously it would either require taxes to pay for it, or the deficit would increase. Hmm,” Bricker explained.

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos survey conducted on behalf of Global News from November 11-14, 2022. For this study, we interviewed a sample of 1,005 Canadians aged 18 and over. Allocations and weightings were employed so that the composition of the sample reflected the composition of the Canadian population according to census parameters. Accuracy of Ipsos online surveys is measured using confidence intervals. In this case, if all Canadians over the age of 18 were surveyed, the survey would be within ±3.5 percentage points (19 out of 20) of accuracy. Confidence intervals are widened across subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls are subject to other errors, including but not limited to coverage errors and measurement errors.

– Using files from The Canadian Press