Poll: Cost of living the top priority for Canadians in the 2022 federal budget

An Ipsos poll says Canadians believe this year's budget should include measures to slow inflation and help with the rapidly rising cost of living.

Canadians are looking to next week’s federal budget to signal that Ottawa understands the strain that the rapidly rising cost of living has put on household finances, suggests a new poll done exclusively for Global News by Ipsos.

“Canadians are in many parts of this country,  really, really feeling the pressure, especially people with more precarious employment, women, people with kids at home — people who are under real pressure as a result of what they see as an unplanned, rising cost of living that they’re now having to manage,” said Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs. “And they’re looking to this budget for a signal from the government that they got it and that they’ve got some ideas about how to deal with it.”

Ipsos asked 1,500 Canadians in an online survey completed between March 11 and 16th to list their three priorities for the 2022 budget, which will be tabled April 7.

A majority — 53 per cent — listed “help with the soaring cost of every day needs due to inflation” as one of their three top priorities. That was followed with 45 per cent saying “lowering taxes” was a top priority and 40 per cent telling the pollster that “greater investments in healthcare” ought to be a priority.

Bricker said the mood of the country on the eve of this budget is significantly different than other years. In other words, climate change, green infrastructure, indigenous reconciliation and other themes often associated with the Trudeau government’s “Build Back Better” messaging were higher priorities among the electorate. Those issues now have a lower priority, according to Ipsos polling.

“What we’re seeing is people much more focused on just the day-to-day affordability of their lives, and that aligns with a lot more pessimism coming out this time from the pandemic, and a real belief that we’re now suffering the personal economic consequences that were associated with the pandemic,” Bricker said.  “It’ll be interesting to see if the government, through this budget, is able to pivot from that to that, as opposed to their ‘build back better’ agenda, which seemed to be that positive, making-the-world a better place type of an agenda.”

The federal Conservatives, in fact, are hoping for just that kind of pivot.

“Fighting inflation, getting spending under control, alleviating the tax burden on Canadians. These are the things I’m looking for,” said Ed Fast, the B.C. Conservative MP who is also his party’s finance critic.