14 | spring 2014 mbabc.ca MortgageBroker
Canada's federal budget is
always a source of useful information for
all business sectors, including the mortgage
industry; however, finding it takes time and
patience. e government tends to emphasize
the big picture positives as former (late)
finance minister Jim Flaherty did when he
presented the latest budget in February. He
highlighted programs such as the Canada
Apprentice Loan, the Canada Job Grant and
Job Matching Service as well as $1.5 billion
over the next decade for the Canada First
Research Excellence Fund.
Media commentators on the other hand
focus on issues that tend to have the biggest
impact on consumers and the general
public. e Globe and Mail, for example,
selected "10 key priorities" including higher
taxes on tobacco products, less "red tape"
for cra beer breweries, changes to Senate
pension rules, the creation of a Canada
First Research Excellence Fund for post-
secondary institutions, extending student aid
to apprentices in their first Red Seal training
program (a certification that provides
Canada-wide mobility for skilled workers),
and legislative changes to regulate Bitcoin.
While priorities like these may interest
a wide range of Canadians, digging deeper
in the budget documents oen reveals
information that is equally important to
specific business sectors, such as mortgage
brokers. While much of this information
comes from government-generated
publications and one has to appreciate it
accordingly, here are some of the gems.
Digging into the federal budget unearths some gems of interest to the mortgage brokering community
Federal Budget Priorities
By Ray Basi
p14-17_FinancialPriority.indd 14 14-05-08 2:37 PM
