Every federal budget cycle includes a period for public submissions well in advance of budget deliberations.
ISAC submitted recommendations to the Standing Committee on Finance during the first 2024 Federal Budget pre-budget submission period which closed on August 4, 2023. Recommendations were submitted in an abridged format.
ISAC recommends the following for Budget 2024:
Recommendation 1 – Reform Employment Insurance into a fair and accessible program for all workers by setting a cross-Canada qualifying rule of 360 hours or 12 weeks for all benefits and setting a benefit floor at $500 per week.
Recommendation 2 – Allocate the necessary funding to implement the Canada Disability Benefit in 2024 in a way that meets the needs of people with disabilities. In particular, the Benefit must have broad eligibility and accessibility, be exempt from clawbacks, and have low-barrier appeal rights.
Recommendation 3 – Extend eligibility for the Canada Child Benefit to all children who reside in Canada, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. Invest in targeted community outreach strategies to reduce barriers and to ensure Indigenous communities can access the Benefit.
Recommendation 4 – Improve income security for low income Canadians by improving and investing in broadly accessible social programs aimed at reducing poverty.
Recommendation 5 – Investigate and hold accountable major corporations that misused pandemic benefits. Implement a broad program of debt forgiveness for low-income individuals who received pandemic benefits, and ensure low repayment plans are easily available.
Recommendation 6 – Make relevant and needed financial investments in First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and urban Indigenous communities, as determined by community leadership and community members, without delay.
Recommendation 7 – Bring in a comprehensive and inclusive regularization program for migrants that includes undocumented migrants.
Recommendation 8 – Increase the minimum wage for federally regulated workers to $20 an hour, while maintaining annual indexing to the Consumer Price Index.
Recommendation 9 – Remove the accrual model for the ten employer-paid sick days legislated in Bill C-3 and replace it with full access to ten paid sick days per year immediately upon starting new employment and at the beginning of each calendar year.
Read our full submission in English (PDF) here or in French (PDF) here.
You can also scroll through the submission (in English) in the embedded window below.