Canadians Want to See Help with Increasing Cost of Living Addressed in the Upcoming Federal Budget

Toronto, ON, March 31, 2022 – The next Federal Budget will be presented in the coming weeks by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. A recent Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of Global News finds that while Canadians have multiple priorities they’d like to see reflected in the budget, their primary need is help with the soaring cost of everyday needs due to inflation, cited by 53% as something they’d like to see as a priority in the federal budget.

Lowering taxes (45%) and greater investment in healthcare (40%) round out the top three priorities for Canadians that they’d like to see reflected in the upcoming budget.

Budget Priorities Shift Along Gender Lines

While these top three priorities may not seem surprising given the ongoing pandemic and the challenges of inflation, a closer look at the demographics shows that Canadians of different genders, generations, and regions have varying priorities.

The top three priorities for both men and women align with those of all Canadians: namely, help with the cost of everyday needs, lower taxes, and healthcare investments.

However, the strength of opinion of these topics varies, as do secondary priorities. Men are more likely to highlight a reduction in spending as a priority for the upcoming budget while women are more likely to prioritize housing, healthcare, and everyday needs as topics they’d like to see reflected in the Federal Budget:  

• Reducing the deficit (25% men vs. 15% women)
• Reducing overall government spending (25% men vs. 18% women)
• Help with the soaring cost of every day needs due to inflation (58% women vs. 48% men)
• Greater investments in healthcare (43% women vs. 36% men)
• Measures to cool the housing market (27% women vs. 15% men)

While the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has 11% of Canadians wanting to see investment in armed forces as a priority in the upcoming budget, this is also significantly higher among men (15% vs, 7% women).

Boomers More Likely to Want Healthcare Spending in Upcoming Budget, While Ontarians Seek Help with Affordable Housing

When asked to indicate what they’d like to see in the upcoming budget, Boomers emphasize their desire to see greater investments in healthcare (54% Boomer vs. 38% Gen X, 32% Millennial, 24% Gen Z), a reduction in overall spending (28% Boomer vs. 21% Gen X, 17% Millennials, 12% Gen Z), and a reduction in the deficit (27% Boomers vs. 17% Gen X, 18% Millennials, 12% Gen Z). Boomers (who remain the generation most likely to own their own home) are least likely to prioritize measures that would cool the housing market (13% Boomer vs. 22% Gen X, 28% Millennial, 30% Gen Z) a topic that 30% of Gen Zers want to see mentioned by the Finance Minister.

Reflecting the challenges of finding affordable housing in hotter housing markets, Ontarians and British Columbians are more likely than other regions to want to see housing strategies prioritized in the budget (29% ON, 25% BC vs. 19% AB, 14% QC, 13% SK/MB, 10% ATL).  Quebecers are more likely than other regions to want investment in healthcare (53% vs. 45% ATL, 37% SK/MB, 35% ON, 34% BC, 30% AB), while residents of the Prairies have help with the cost of everyday needs as their main priority (65% SK/MB vs. 60% AB, 59% BC, 55% ON, 48% ATL, 41% QC). 

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between March 11 and 16, 2022, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,500 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 ± 2.9 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:

Darrell Bricker
CEO, Ipsos Global Public Affairs
+1 416 324 2001
[email protected]

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