Freeland to cancel $250 checks promised for ‘Canada workers’ in Monday’s

SCOOP: Freeland to  cancel $250 checks promised  for 'Canada workers' in  Monday's mini-budget
Cancellation of controversial PMO gift could be a  kind of victory for Freeland
Chrystia  Freeland
Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland  takes a question from a reporter (not  visible) during a  news conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa
If you're one of the nearly 19 million  Canadian workers expecting a $250  check from the Liberal government in the new year, don't spend the money just  yet.
Sources have told  the National Post that Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland  is set to change the government's  stance on the  "Canada workers' discount" that would cost  about $4.68  billion.
A person  familiar with the plans said the measure will not  appear in  Monday's budget update, but the government hopes to  consider it again next year, if it can find another party to support  it.
Emails to  Freeland's office and the  prime minister's office seeking confirmation were not returned by  deadline. The Liberal government's  original plan was to send $250  checks to 18.7 million Canadians who worked in 2023 and earned less than $150,000, but  they were unable to get the measure  approved by Parliament.
Although the GST  break received  support from the NDP, Jagmeet Singh  has made it clear that his party would  refuse to support the  deduction checks unless seniors, people with disabilities and injured workers were included. The Bloc Québécois  has taken a similar approach. An expanded rebate could  add another $2 billion to the  cost.
An official, who was not  authorized to speak publicly, said the government  was trying to stay within certain spending  limits. Abandoning a commitment to spend nearly $5 billion on a measure  that the  Treasury Department did not  think made financial sense will be seen as  something of a victory for  Freeland.
It has been widely reported that the affordability  plan came from the Prime Minister's Office, which  initially proposed the two-month GST holiday that  began Saturday and the $250 stimulus  checks planned for the  spring.
However, it is clear that Freeland was  not enthusiastic and that there has been a  breakdown in  the relationship between the two senior  government ministers.
The finance minister appeared  tense and  appeared to  be in tears when asked about the  spending tensions at a  news conference on  Friday.
The last time a finance minister disagreed with the prime minister on spending — Bill Morneau on  the level of COVID  benefits — Trudeau  decided Ottawa wasn't big enough for both of  them.
Freeland appears to be under similar pressure, despite the  prime minister's alleged affinity for her.  Not a day goes by without a new story about former central banker Mark Carney being  rumored to  be replacing him. The Globe and Mail reported that the  Prime Minister's Office was planning  two scenarios for  a cabinet  reshuffle: one that  would include Carney and one that  would not. Emails to Carney seeking comment were not  immediately returned.
Chrystia Freeland speaks  at a news conference in Ottawa on Oct. 1, 2024.  In her hand is written
Canadians want to know: Why does Chrystia Freeland have  handwritten notes? Taylor Swift  will perform at the Eras Tour  concert in  Vancouver on Friday, December 6,  2024. Trudeau received tickets for Taylor Swift directly from concert  promoter Eras, according to the PMO.
A cabinet  reshuffle is  long overdue: there are two vacancies and four other ministers have said they  will not  run in the next  election.
It remains possible that a  reshuffle will take place on Tuesday and Carney  will be unveiled as the new finance minister, although one source suggested  the timing was increasingly unlikely.
But that is no way to run a  country. We have reached a level of dysfunction at the top that is even greater than  during the Morneau-Trudeau  feud.
This is  a makeshift government, with all the  inconsistencies and  communication problems that  come with improvisation all the time. "There are a lot of moving parts," said one  official.
The best that can be said about the disappearing  checks is that they  are not  missing.
The program has not had the desired effect with voters. A Postmedia-Leger poll  conducted earlier this month  found that seven in 10 respondents thought the measures were  just a vote-rigging ploy, with only one in five  agreeing they  were "good  measures that will help people  deal with  inflation." The poll  suggests that Liberal support  has fallen since the  plan was  announced.
The budget update is  expected to reveal deficits for 2023/24 and 2024/25  that are much higher than the $40 billion Freeland  promised in the last  budget.
She told Bloomberg last week that the debt-to-GDP  ratio will  fall, as promised, but she  did not comment on the size of the deficit.  Financial sources suggest it  could reach $60 billion last year and  this year. After canceling the  $4.68 billion donation, Freeland can at least  argue that the money  would be better spent on measures that help Canada weather the incoming Trump administration, such as those she announced last  Friday.
At a press conference in Toronto, she said the government will invest an  additional $1.9 billion over six years in the  nation's leading innovation tax credit, the  Experimental Research and Development  Tax Incentive, and  an additional $1 billion in the  Entrepreneurship Capital Catalyst  Initiative. These funds will help grow  Canadian mid-sized  businesses.
She said the government will also spend billions  of dollars on a program to build data centres by attracting investment from Canadian pension funds. Under the  program, the funds  are expected to invest $2 for every dollar the government spends on AI data centres, up to a total of $45  billion.
If the fall economic statement is  Freeland's swan song as finance minister, she can at least claim  to have tried to do something meaningful, rather than  just a liberal use of  junk.