C-19

Details

Full Title

An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on April 7, 2022 and other measures

First Reading

April 28, 2022, Parliament 44, Session 1

Type

House Government Bill

Full Content

https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/44-1/c-19

Summary

The Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1 (Bill C-19) makes changes to several Canadian laws. It includes changes to income tax rules, such as a new deduction for tradespeople who move for work. It also allows certain businesses to write off the full cost of some property right away. The bill provides more clarity around GST/HST tax for new homes, and extends hospital rebates for healthcare charities and non-profits. A new tax is created for luxury cars, planes, and boats that cost above a certain amount. The bill also changes rules around vaping products and alcohol. It also includes various amendments to acts covering indigenous people, employment insurance, and economic sanctions, among other things. Finally, it makes some changes to how the Senate operates and to the judicial system.

Issues

Economy

• Inflation and Cost of Living

  This bill addresses inflation and cost of living in a few ways. Firstly, it implements a luxury tax on select items like vehicles and boats over certain price thresholds, which may affect consumers purchasing these goods. Secondly, changes to the Climate Action Incentive payments aim to provide more timely financial relief to eligible individuals. Finally, there are tax changes to ensure that assignment sales for newly constructed or substantially renovated housing are subject to GST/HST, which may impact housing prices.

• Jobs

  The bill includes a Labour Mobility Deduction for tradespeople, which may encourage them to take on temporary work in different locations. It also makes changes to the Employment Insurance Act to help workers, including those in underrepresented groups, find and keep jobs.

• Taxation

  Part 1 of the bill implements several income tax measures, including a Labour Mobility Deduction for tradespeople, allowing certain Canadian businesses to immediately expense eligible property, doubling the Home Accessibility Tax Credit, expanding the Disability Tax Credit, changing the delivery of Climate Action Incentive payments, temporarily extending film or video production tax credits, and providing a tax incentive for zero-emission technology manufacturing activities. Part 2 implements GST/HST measures related to assignment sales of newly constructed or renovated residential housing and extends eligibility for expanded hospital rebates. Part 4 enacts the Select Luxury Items Tax Act, creating a new tax on domestic sales and importations of certain new motor vehicles, aircraft, and boats above specified price thresholds.

• Spending

  Division 4 of Part 5 allows for payments from the government to help with transit and housing needs. Division 6 of Part 5 allows for extra payments to provinces and territories.

Social Services

• Healthcare

  Part 2 of the bill extends the hospital rebate program to cover healthcare services provided by charities or non-profit groups that involve doctors or nurse practitioners.

• Childcare

  The bill allows the Children’s Special Allowance to be paid for children supported by Indigenous governing bodies. It also ensures consistent tax rules for kinship care providers and foster parents who get financial help from Indigenous governing bodies.

• Seniors and Pensions

  Division 8 of Part 5 makes changes to the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985. It lets some defined benefit plans create a solvency reserve account in their pension fund. It also requires all pension plans to have rules for how they are run.

Environment

• Climate

  The bill changes how Climate Action Incentive payments are given out, switching from an annual refundable credit to quarterly payments. It also broadens capital cost allowance deductions to cover new equipment used for clean energy.

• Energy

  The bill expands capital cost allowance deductions to include new clean energy equipment, and provides a tax incentive for specified zero-emission technology manufacturing activities.

Social Justice

• Reconciliation

  The bill makes changes related to Indigenous communities. It ensures that the Children’s Special Allowance can be paid for children maintained by Indigenous governing bodies and standardizes tax treatment for kinship care providers and foster parents getting financial assistance from Indigenous governing bodies. It also gives force of law to the entire Nisga’a Nation Taxation Agreement and repeals the Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act, while exempting income earned by the Safe Drinking Water Trust from taxation.

• Immigration and Integration

  Division 23 of Part 5 amends the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to allow the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to set instructions for who is invited to apply for permanent residence, based on economic goals. It also ensures that officers do not issue visas to foreign nationals who do not meet the criteria for the category they are invited under.

• Income Inequality and Poverty

  The bill modifies certain social assistance provisions related to the Income Tax Act.

Security and Defense

• Crime

  Division 19 of Part 5 restricts the use of detention in dry cells to cases where the institutional head has reasonable grounds to believe that an inmate has ingested contraband or that contraband is being carried in the inmate’s rectum.