Upon learning of its newly secured majority, the federal government also set the date for the spring fiscal update (April 28).
Usually we’d be waiting for the spring budget at this time of year, but the federal government changed its publication schedule around so the budget is now in the fall with a fiscal statement/mini budget in the spring.
The budget in November 2025 put many of the Liberals’ election promises into motion. It’s time for new ideas and we at the CCPA have got plenty! Here are three big ideas for the spring update.
An excess profits tax on the oil industry
While high oil prices due to the war in Iran may be bad news for most Canadians, it is a massive windfall for oil and gas companies in Canada. Our oil sector profits model estimates that the oil industry is raking in $170 million more in profits every day than it was before the war started—and that money is adding up fast.
In the six weeks since the war started, the industry has made an estimated $9 billion in after-tax profits, which is $6 billion more than it would have earned based on pre-war oil prices. At current prices, the industry is on track to make a stunning $90 billion in profits over the next 12 months.
This is profiteering, which is something the federal government has previously stepped in to address. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, the government applied a 15 per cent surtax on the excess profits of banks and insurance companies. During the Second World War, the government applied a 75 per cent surtax on all companies earning excess war profits. Reintroducing those models for the oil industry today could generate between $9 billion and $46 billion, respectively, over the next 12 months.
In the absence of an excess profits tax, that potentially $90 billion oil windfall will flow entirely to the industry’s (often American) shareholders, not to the workers and households struggling with increased energy costs. This is money we should use to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, not to entrench it further.
Parental leave for all
In a recent analysis, we found that while taking parental paid leave through the Employment Insurance (EI) system is common, it is hardly universal.
There is a clear relationship between income and the likelihood that a parent (usually the mother) took EI-paid parental leave. For those in the top 25 per cent of families, taking EI-paid parental leave is almost universal. But for the lowest income families with young children, it’s only two-thirds of families. In Quebec, which runs a better parental EI system, 79 per cent of the lowest-income families take EI-paid parental leave.
We can do better. In that same analysis, we modelled several options to improve the program so more parents get support.
First we need to improve the replacement rate to 75 per cent of earnings. At only 55 per cent, a lot of families won’t get enough out of EI to take parental leave, so they just go back to work to make ends meet. This problem is particularly acute for lower-income families, where 55 per cent of not a lot is even less, but it’s also true for many middle-income families.
The second problem is that lower-income families can’t get into the EI system in the first place. They don’t have enough working hours to qualify, even though their expenses for a new child are very real. If we set a threshold of $2,000 in earnings in the previous year, like we did during the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), we make more families at the bottom eligible. The result would be 67,000 more families using EI-paid parental supports.
After years of consultation on EI, this would be a real step forward that the government could take in the spring fiscal statement.
$5 billion primary care infrastructure fund
One in five people in Canada do not have access to primary care. But primary care should serve as the door into the health care system.
Evidence demonstrates that countries with a strong primary health care orientation have lower health care costs, better health outcomes, and reduced inequities.
If people don’t have timely access to a regular primary care provider or team, they often end up in emergency departments or delay necessary health care until they’re in a health crisis. This is much more costly to the public system.
The federal government does not provide direct infrastructure funding in support of non-profit primary care services. The federal government should establish a $5 billion fund, indexed to inflation, that can help provinces finance non-profit primary care infrastructure, including community health centres and non-profit primary care organizations.
This fund could help establish non-profit primary health care centres in every community, like we do for public schools.
Similar to federal child care funding, the infrastructure funding would only fund non-profit organizations and would exclude for-profit providers and corporate chains—a growing problem across the country.
A strong economy means supporting the care economy and the health and wellness of all.
