Liberal budget extends a hand to families

It was Henry IV of France who decided that none among his countrymen should be without “a chicken in every pot every Sunday.”
In her recently delivered federal budget, Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland could not reach for such lofty aspirations, but she was able to target about 11 million Canadians with a little financial assistance to help put some food in pantries across the nation.
The Liberal government Grocery Rebate, as it’s termed will provide eligible couples with two children with up to $467 in a one-time payment.
Single Canadians without children and seniors will collect between $234 and $225.
The rebate is expected to be rolled into the GST/HST credits and those eligible who have filed their tax return can look forward to receiving their cheque in the coming months if the budget is passed.
The grocery rebate initiative is expected to cost the government about $2.5 billion.
Also, Canadian households can look forward to additional help from the Liberal government’s recently outlined dental plan, the Canada Dental Benefit, which started last on December and will be phased in over three years.
In outlining the plan, Minister Freeland projected that by the end of 2023, “we will begin rolling out a dental-care plan for what will eventually be up to nine million uninsured Canadians.”
She expects that “up to nine million uninsured Canadians” will be covered by the plan.
In its initial phase, the Canada Dental Benefit targeted children under the age of 12 in families with a household income of less than $90,000 but eligibility will be expanded further to include anyone who meets the household income requirements.
Although the dental program is being touted as one of the highlights of the recent budget, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has been making a point of letting Canadians know that it was his party that championed the initiative, and its inclusion was fundamental to their support of the minority Liberal government.
“We forced the government to do this,” he said.