Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is turning its back on workers who withheld the $250 rebate the Liberals promised to send to millions of Canadians.
Prime Minister Trudeau last week announced dozens of new plans, including a proposed two-month GST holiday on some goods and services such as children’s toys, beer and wine, and restaurant meals, as well as a plan to send $250 checks to 18.7 million people. announced a billion dollar affordable package. People working in Canada in 2023 and earning less than $150,000.
The House of Commons passed a bill to enact the tax holiday on Thursday, but the government did not include the rebate check component because the NDP promised to withhold support unless the government split its pledge into two bills.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked Friday whether the $250 rebate checks will be expanded to include seniors and people with disabilities who are not working in 2023. In response, the Prime Minister pointed to the government’s previous moves to support older people and families, but gave no details about possible changes to the proposed rebate.
“The NDP, which is supposed to be the party of workers, is turning its back on working Canadians and saying, ‘We shouldn’t give you these checks unless we scale it up massively.’ That’s a problem working Canadians have. It’s not acknowledging the challenges we face,” Trudeau said at a press conference Friday.
Some Canadians, including seniors, have expressed concern that they will be left out of the millions of people receiving rebate checks.
Prime Minister Trudeau said Friday that the rebate checks are a targeted measure to support “hard-working Canadians” who may be excluded from other government support programs.
“We’re going to continue to work for seniors as much as we have always done. We’re looking at different ways to help all kinds of different people,” he said. Ta.
“But to look at the hard-working Canadians who get up every day and go to work and make our economy and our communities successful and give them special recognition…that’s what this is all about.”
The NDP initially said it supported the bill, but is now calling on the government to expand it to include seniors, people with disabilities and injured workers.
