Canadians Outline their 2023 Federal Budget Priorities: Help with Inflation (43%), Lower Taxes (37%) and Investing in Healthcare (35%)

Toronto, ON, March 27, 2023 – Ahead of the delivery of the federal budget by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, Canadians have outlined their priorities for the budget in a new Ipsos poll conducted for Global News. Respondents were allowed to choose up to 3 priorities from a list of 17 possibilities.

The top priority for Canadians in Freeland’s budget is to provide help with the soaring cost of every day needs due to inflation. While inflation has been declining in recent months, recent Ipsos polling has shown that Canadians remain concerned about inflation, ranking 5^th-most worried out of 29 countries around the world.

The second priority for the budget, according to Canadians, is lowering taxes (37%), meaning that the two highest priorities are pocketbook issues. Canadians’ third budget priority is a desire for the government to invest more in healthcare (35%).

Rounding out the top five budget priorities are increasing taxes for Canadians who are better off (22%), although only 16% with a household income greater than $100K agree, and a reduction in overall government spending (17%).

Below is a list of all of the budget priorities Canadians could chose from, along with the proportion of Canadians who place that issue among their top three priorities.

Priorities for the Federal Budget

 

Priority	% of Canadians choosing in top three
Help with the soaring cost of every day needs due to inflation	43%
Lowering taxes	37%
Greater investments in healthcare	35%
Increase taxes for Canadians who are better off	22%
Reduce overall government spending	17%
Reduce the deficit	15%
Spending to support the transition to greener energy	12%
Incentives for Canadians to lower their carbon footprint	11%
Freeze pay for public servants	10%
Increasing funding for building homes in high-demand areas	9%
Employment insurance reform	8%
Investing in Canada’s Armed Forces and Defence	7%
Federal funding for school lunches	7%
Help for businesses still struggling with impact of the pandemic	7%
Expand the GST rebate for homebuyers	5%
Increasing the age of retirement from 65 to 67	3%
Some other issue	4%
None of the above	2%
Don’t’ know	7%

 

Not all Canadians feel similarly about the priorities for the budget, with younger Canadians leaning more towards pocketbook issues, and older Canadians placing greater emphasis on healthcare spending:

• For those under the age of 35, the top 5 priorities are: lowering taxes (38%), helping with inflation relief (33%), investing in healthcare (23%), increasing taxes for those well-off (17%) and incentives to lower one’s carbon footprint (14%);
• For Canadians aged 35-54, the top 5 priorities are: help with inflation (48%), lowering taxes (37%), investing in healthcare (32%), increasing taxes for Canadians who are better off (18%) and reducing government spending (17%);
• For those aged 55+, the top 5 priorities are: relief from inflation (47%), investing in healthcare (46%), lowering taxes (37%), increasing taxes for those who are better off (28%), and a reduction in government spending (19%);
• Women prioritize help with soaring costs due to inflation (52%), healthcare spending (40%), lowering taxes (38%), increasing taxes for those well of (19%), and reducing overall spending (13%), and;.
• Men say their top-five priorities are: lowering taxes (37%), helping with costs due to inflation (34%), investing in healthcare (29%), increasing taxes for well-off Canadians (24%), and reducing overall government spending (21%).

The following chart shows how the top five issues ranked by region in Canada:

Top 5 Priorities by Region

Priority	BC	AB	SK/MB	ON	PQ	ATL
Help with the soaring cost of every day needs due to inflation	43%	49%	47%	48%	28%	56%
Lowering taxes	29%	37%	34%	40%	39%	38%
Greater investments in healthcare	35%	33%	32%	28%	45%	39%
Increase taxes for Canadians who are better off	30%	27%	27%	15%	25%	29%
Reduce overall government spending	10%	23%	20%	16%	19%	15%

 

Outside of the top-five issues there are a few areas where some provinces diverge significantly:

• British Columbians are more likely to prioritize building homes (14%);
• Quebecers are more likely to support increased funding for the transition to green energy (16%);
• Residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba are most likely to prioritize federal funding for school lunches (14%); and,.
• Quebecers are most likely to prioritize freezing the pay for public servants (14%).

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between March 20 to 22, 2023, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,001 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed. Quotas and weighting were employed to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the Canadian population according to census parameters. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadians aged 18+ been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Gregory Jack

Vice President, Ipsos Public Affairs
[email protected]  

 

About Ipsos

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Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts and scientists have built unique multi-specialist capabilities that provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees. We serve more than 5000 clients across the world with 75 business solutions.

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