On March 28^th Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, released Budget 2023— A Made-in-Canada Plan: Strong Middle Class, Affordable Economy, Healthy Future.

The 2023-24 budget delivered an estimated total of $432.9 billion in spending which projects a deficit of $40.1 billion with deficit budgets continuing for 5 years.

A key focus of the budget is the transition to the Green Economy with Minister Freeland stating to parliament that the world is undergoing “the most significant economic transformation since the Industrial Revolution”.

Key budget elements included:

• Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit: Budget 2023 will create a 15% refundable credit to support non-emitting generation systems, storage and transmission.
• Clean Technology Manufacturing: Budget 2023 will create a 30% tax credit for new machinery and equipment used to manufacture or process key clean technologies and extract key critical minerals.
• Clean Hydrogen: Budget 2023 will create an up to 40% tax credit for projects producing clean hydrogen.
• Zero Emission Manufacturing: Budget 2023 extends the reduced tax rates for zero-emission technology manufacturers.

The Strategic Innovation Fund will receive $500 million to support the development and application of clean technologies in Canada.  Additionally, The Strategic Innovation Fund will also allocate up to $1.5 billion of its existing resources towards projects in critical minerals, industrial transformation, and clean technology sectors.

Additional items for the innovation economy included:

• A new round of the Smart Cities challenge will launch later this year.
• Tax changes to enable employee ownership trusts, allowing more business people to sell their firms to their workers over time.
• $370 million in new money for the Canadian Space Agency.