Tax breaks, more spending: What Trudeau's opponents want to see in the 2022 budget

The 2022 federal budget will be tabled a week from today. As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's cabinet and Finance Department officials finalize the massive spending document, opposition MPs are calling for the Liberals to commit to presenting a fiscal plan that both reins in spending, and spends more.

It’ll be on Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to weigh the current economic pressures from inflation, calls for no tax increase, including what they promised they would in the last election, a growing expectation that Canada will be increasing its defense budget, and their deal with the New Democrats that will see billions allocated for social programs including dental care.

In concluding their 2022 pre-budget hearings, MPs made more than 200 recommendations for what the budget should include or consider, based on their consultations with stakeholders, economists, and industry groups.

Ahead of the budget’s tabling, here’s some of what MPs from across the aisle are saying about what they think the spending plan should, and shouldn’t include.

In an opposition day motion debated on Thursday, the federal Conservatives accused the Liberals of “excessive government spending” prompting record inflation, and also of refusing “to provide relief to Canadians.”