Morning Update: Liberals target child care, COVID-19 relief in a wave of new spending, as deficit projected to hit $354-billion

Good morning,

The Liberal government’s first budget in more than two years maintains heavy spending to combat the pandemic and aims to address social inequality while spurring economic growth – directing $101.4-billion in stimulus at key voting blocks as a potential election looms.

In unveiling her first budget, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is offering billions of dollars of federal money to women, seniors, students, Indigenous and racialized communities, small-business owners and young people wanting to buy their first homes.

Andrew Coyne: Federal budget gives money to all, without a path to real economic growth

Campbell Clark: This budget will be the backbone of the Liberal election platform

Editorial: Chrystia Freeland’s first budget is extremely big – and surprisingly modest

Ottawa proposes establishing national child-care program

The federal government has made child care the central plank of its social policy, pledging to spend $30-billion over five years to create a national system that’s affordable and accessible.

The budget said the Liberal government’s spending would reach $8.3-billion every year after the initial five years. The government estimates this funding will allow for a 50-per-cent reduction in the average fees families pay for regulated early learning and child care in all provinces, apart from Quebec, to be delivered by the end of 2022.

Rob Carrick: National child-care program is Ottawa’s biggest personal finance proposal

Ottawa plans vacant home tax to dissuade foreign speculators, along with billions for affordable housing

Ottawa unveiled a 1-per-cent vacant home tax for foreign owners and an additional $2.5-billion to build affordable housing, measures that will increase housing supply but do little to moderate the country’s overheated real estate market.

Under the federal government’s budget plan, the tax will be levied on foreigners if their Canadian properties are deemed “unproductive.” The tax is designed to ensure non-Canadians either rent or sell their property instead of using it to “passively store their wealth in housing,” according to budget documents.

Robyn Urback: Not included in the federal budget: real help to cool runaway housing markets

With their budget’s green-recovery plans, the Liberals place a big bet on large industry

After over a year of talk about how to fashion a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has landed on an approach that places heavy industry at the centre of its efforts.

The biggest new climate-related expenditure promised in the budget is an additional $5-billion over seven years, atop $3-billion previously announced, for the Net Zero Accelerator – a fund geared mostly toward helping heavy-emitting sectors transform themselves through clean-technology investment.

Kelly Cryderman: Inclusion of tax credits for carbon capture in federal budget is a victory for Alberta. But details in the plan could pose a stumbling block to progress

Budget ties end of business, income supports to completion of COVID-19 vaccination campaign

The federal government will extend its business and income support programs until the country’s vaccination campaign is complete, but their subsidy levels will start to drop before the deadline for all Canadians to get their shots.

The budget sets Sept. 25 as the end date for the direct business and personal income supports the government introduced in response to the pandemic. That is in line with the end-of-summer deadline Prime Minister Justin Trudeau set for the completion of Canada’s vaccine rollout. It’s widely expected Canadians could also be sent back to the polls around that time.

David Parkinson: Liberals bet big that we can spend our way out of deficit problems

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Ontario hospitals relying on patient transfers to cope with crush of COVID-19 cases

Ontario’s hardest-hit hospitals have transferred more than 550 patients by helicopter and ambulance in the past two weeks as the third wave threatens to overwhelm intensive-care resources in COVID-19 hot spots.

But even with a record number of transfers easing the burden, some hospitals in coronavirus-battered communities in the Greater Toronto Area are preparing new protocols in case they run out of beds as severely ill patients flow in at unprecedented rates.

Read more:

Peel Region to order sweeping business closings in rebuke of Ontario’s COVID-19 measures

B.C. imposing travel restrictions within province as COVID-19 cases threaten hospital services

B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario lower age limits for AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

Opinion: Our actions can help pull Canada’s health care system back from the brink

Should you hold off on vaccination if you live in a hot spot but aren’t at high risk of getting COVID-19?

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MORNING MARKETS

World stocks slip: Global shares edged further back from record highs on Tuesday as lofty sovereign bond yields and rising global COVID-19 cases had investors questioning high equity valuations. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.82 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.75 per cent and 0.83 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei ended down 1.97 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.10 per cent. New York futures were modestly lower. The Canadian dollar was trading at 79.85 US cents.

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

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LIVING BETTER

Eating for gut health? Consider postbiotics

You’re probably familiar with probiotics and prebiotics. But now there’s a newcomer to the “biotics” family that you may not know of: postbiotics. These bioactive compounds are turning up in supplements and are expected to make their way into foods and beverages. But you don’t need to rely on pills or fortified foods to get them. Here’s an introduction to postbiotics, plus a quick gut health review.

YOUR DAILY HOROSCOPE: APRIL 20

IF TODAY IS YOUR BIRTHDAY: By all means make plans, and make them big, but recognize too that you won’t get far unless you make alliances with people who share your aims and ambitions. Does the world need changing? Yes. Can you do your bit? You can if you are sensible about it.

Read today's horoscopes.

MOMENT IN TIME: APRIL 20, 2010

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Deepwater Horizon explosion causes massive oil spill

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which began on this day in 2010, is one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. An offshore drilling rig, about 66 kilometres off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, was working on an oil well about 1,500 metres deep. But a problem occurred at the wellhead on the ocean floor and suddenly, a rush of high-pressure methane gas surged up the pipe and onto the platform. An explosion killed 11 workers, although 94 crew members were rescued. Two days later, the giant rig capsized. Oil gushed from the well and started flowing into the Gulf. It flowed and it flowed. Despite efforts to plug the leak, the oil kept flowing for 87 days, until the well was finally capped. It was the largest marine oil spill in history – 4,900,000 barrels of oil, forming a slick of 149,000 square km. The toll was enormous on birds, fish and other wildlife. The oil slick destroyed ecosystems and fisheries in Louisiana. It polluted 1,800 km of shoreline in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. The fines and cleanup cost owner BP about US$40-billion. And in its report on the disaster, the White House admitted it could happen again. Philip King

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