2021 Federal Budget: The Fédération des gens d’affaires francophones de l’Ontario (FGA) applauds the magnitude of the budgetary effort

Toronto, April 20, 2021 – The Fédération des gens d’affaires francophones de l’Ontario (FGA) is pleased with the investments announced by the federal government to provide lower-cost child care services to all Canadian families, a major structural measure to boost the Canadian economy.

“The FGA is pleased with the federal government‘s announcement to provide affordable child care for all Canadian families with an investment of $30 billion over five years and the reduction of regulated child care fees by half by 2022. We look forward to working closely with the Ontario government to ensure a fair and harmonious implementation for Francophone families in the province, taking into account the realities of today’s labour market.” Dominic Mailloux, President of the FGA

This funding, which should allow more women to remain in the workforce and which represents a powerful growth lever for economic development, will reinforce the efforts of the FGA, which has been offering services and activities to support the development of women entrepreneurs since its launch.

The FGA is also pleased to see the federal government’s support for small and medium-sized businesses as it extends the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) and creates the Canada Recovery Hiring Program to stimulate the hiring of new employees as part of the economic recovery.

“With the Trudeau government’s announcement of $101.4 billion over three years to stimulate the economy, we are pleased that the wage subsidy has been extended to September 25 and that the government is launching the new Canada Recovery Hiring Program. With assistance of up to 50% of the wages of eligible employees from June to November 2021, we hope that this program will provide financial relief to our francophone businesses that have been struggling since COVID-19. – Richard Kempler, Executive Director of the FGA.

The FGA also supports the Trudeau government’s commitment to invest an additional $16 billion over five years for businesses; with a quarter of this envelope allocated to SMEs, in the form of micro-grants in particular, to help 160,000 small and medium-sized businesses that want to adopt new digital technologies in their operations and train their employees.

Finally, although the FGA regrets the lack of clarity on issues directly affecting the Franco-Ontarian community, such as the modernization of the Official Languages Act or the Laurentian University’s crisis and the recovery of the Francophone economy, we would like to point out that the 2021 budget also announces the allocation of $392 million over three years for the promotion of both official languages, in particular to improve French immersion programmes. 

Consult the 2021 budget in Web version.

Download the 2021 budget (PDF).

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 About the Fédération des gens d’affaires francophones de l’Ontario
The Fédération des gens d’affaires francophones de l’Ontario brings together, represents and advances the social and economic interests of its members with the various levels of government, business partners and the general public through principled policy development, resourceful business services and innovative activities focused on the development of Francophone business markets.

Contacts and interviews

Mélanie Grenier
media@fedefranco.ca

Richard Kempler
Executive Director, FGA
richard.kempler@fedefranco.ca