Will Budget 2023 make life more affordable for Canadians? Here’s what experts say

The Liberals pitched a slew of affordability measures in Budget 2023 as government spending is set to rise. Will this make it any easier for Canadians struggling to make ends meet?

The 2023 federal budget saw the Liberals hike up their spending plans and devote plenty of attention to affordability concerns, but experts are unconvinced the proposals will make a dent on the finances of everyday Canadians, nor the country’s economic trajectory.

Economists had told Global News that Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland was in a tough spot heading into the 2023 budget, the second of the Liberals’ current minority mandate.

Canadians have struggled to make ends meet for months amid cooling but still-high inflation and rapidly rising interest rates. Yet with a slowing economy and possible recession on the horizon, the government was also tasked with keeping some funds in reserve to avoid overspending and re-stimulating inflation.

Freeland said Tuesday that the 2023 budget shows “fiscal restraint” while also delivering “targeted inflation relief to those who need it most.”

But Pamela George, a financial literacy counsellor who works with women, says the 2023 spending plan is “subpar” from an affordability lens.

“It’s nothing to write home about. I’m not shouting and celebrating anything,” says the Ottawa-based founder of Sand Dollar Financial Literacy Counselling.

Measures in the budget like the so-called grocery rebate, which tops up the GST rebate with an average of $467 to a family of four and $234 to a single Canadian, do not go far enough to offset rapid rises in the cost of food, mortgage rates and rent that George says her clients are struggling to keep pace with.

While she acknowledges that “every dollar counts,” she tells Global News that the rebate won’t help Canadians “in a way that is meaningful.”