Budget 2024: Here’s what Canadians want from Ottawa
Canadians are mostly looking for help paying their bills in the 2024 federal budget, not investments in the military or clean energy transitions, according to polling released Friday.
The Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News surveyed 1,000 Canadians between March 15 and 18 about what their top three priorities were for the upcoming federal budget, set to be tabled by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on April 16.
The cumulative top priority for those polled was help with the rising cost of living (44 per cent).
Women (53 per cent) more so than men (36 per cent) rated cost-of-living support as a priority. Half of gen X respondents (those born between 1965 and 1980) said they were looking for pocketbook help in the budget, the highest proportion of any generation.
“Pocketbook issues dominate the list of the things that Canadians want to see addressed in the budget,” Sean Simpson, senior vice-president at Ipsos Global Affairs, tells Global News.
He says he sees a clear focus among voters on taxes, affordability and other household finances in the polling.
“All those issues, in some way, shape or form, are tied to the amount of money that Canadians have that seems to be draining from their wallet at record speeds these days,” Simpson says.
The other budget line item garnering significant interest is investments in health care, with 38 per cent of respondents ranking it as a priority.
But when asked about a hypothetical hike of one per cent in the GST to fund services like pharmacare – the framework for which the Liberals have introduced as part of their supply-and-confidence deal with the NDP – only five per cent of those surveyed said they saw it as a priority.
Instead, more Canadians are signalling that
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