What I find most interesting about budgets are the provisions that are often buried in the fine print and don’t make the front page of the newspaper. You will find links below to some widely-reported features of the 2018 Federal Budget and others you may not yet be aware of.

The graphic above illustrates how the new EI parental-sharing benefit will operate. The Investment Executive reports that in an initiative that was widely-anticipated in the lead-up to the February 27th budget, the Liberal government introduced a new Employment Insurance (EI) parental sharing benefit that will provide extended EI parental benefits when both parents agree to share parental leave. The proposed “use-it-or-lose-it” benefit will increase the duration of EI parental leave by up to five weeks for parents who share a standard 12-month parental leave, or up to eight weeks for parents who share an extended 18-month leave. This incentive is expected to be available starting June 2019.

And while details are sketchy, MPs may finally be entitled to long over-due maternity and parental leave. According to the Budget Papers (p.52):

“The Government is supportive of, and will work with Parliament on, the recommendations put forward in the report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs entitled Support for Members of Parliament with Young Children. This includes…improving work-life balance, providing access to child care and designated spaces for the use of Members with infants and children, and a change to the Standing Orders of the House of Commons to allow an infant being cared for by a Member of Parliament to be present on the floor of the House of Commons. The Government will also bring forward amendments to the Parliament of Canada Act to make it possible for Parliamentarians to take maternity and parental leave.”

The government has backtracked on key tax measures for small businesses. Mark Burgess at advisor.ca explains how the federal government will tie the passive income threshold to the small business deduction. He notes that the plan put forward in Tuesday’s federal budget takes a different approach to the one the government proposed last summer that received considerable blowback from business owners.

If a corporation earns more than $50,000 of passive investment income in a year, the amount of income eligible for the small business tax rate is reduced and more of the company’s active income is taxed at the general corporate rate. The $50,000 threshold originally announced in changes the government made to its proposals while under pressure from business groups in October is equivalent to $1 million in passive investment assets at a 5% return.

Julie Cazzen at Maclean’s lists 15 ways Budget 2018 will affect your wallet.  Here are a few of the interesting budget provisions she highlights:

• The Canadian Child Benefit will be indexed to inflation starting July 2018.
• You will be able to open an RESP and claim the $500 Canada Learning Bond grant at the same time that you apply for a birth certificate for your child. This will automatically enroll children born into low-income families for the grant.
• Canada Student Grants and Loans has expanded eligibility for part time students, as well as full and part time students with children, and introduced a three-year pilot project that will provide adults returning to school on a full-time basis after several years in the workforce with an additional $1,600 in grant money starting Aug 1, 2018.
• A new Apprenticeship Incentive Grant for Women will give women in male-dominated trades fields $3,000 per year of training (or up to $6,000 over two years). Almost all Red Seal trades are eligible.
• The CPP death benefit is now $2,500 for all eligible contributors (whereas before it was pro-rated.)

Rob Carrick in the Globe and Mail discusses seven changes that could affect your finances. For example, following up on public consultations in 2016, the federal government is poised to announce improvements to Canada Deposit Insurance Corp. The consultations looked at adding registered disability savings plans (RDSPs) and registered education savings plans (RESPs) to the list of registered accounts that are covered and adding foreign currency deposits to covered products.

This would benefit snowbirds keeping large deposits in U.S.-dollar accounts. Other reforms could add coverage for guaranteed investment certificates of longer than five-year terms. Increasing the current $100,000 coverage limit for eligible deposits does not appear to be in the government’s plans.

Some other lesser known and unexpected Budget proposals reported by the Financial Post are:

• The government will create an advisory council to begin “a national dialogue” on a national pharmacare program.
• The government is moving to provide more support for Canadians suffering from mental health issues – including veterans – by helping them with the cost of psychiatric service dogs. Specifically, starting this year, the Medical Expense Tax Credit will be expanded to cover costs associated with the animals.

The federal government also announced in the budget that it will eventually move away from its problem-plagued Phoenix pay system – which has overpaid, underpaid or completely failed to pay tens of thousands of public servants – and invest $16-million over two years to develop a new pay system.

You can see the full document tabled in the House of Commons here.

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Written by Sheryl Smolkin
	Sheryl Smolkin LLB., LLM is a retired pension lawyer and President of Sheryl Smolkin & Associates Ltd. For over a decade, she has enjoyed a successful encore career as a freelance writer specializing in retirement, employee benefits and workplace issues. Sheryl and her husband Joel are empty-nesters, residing in Toronto with their cockapoo Rufus.

By Sheryl Smolkin

Over the last few weeks bloggers and mainstream media have been reacting to Finance Minister Joe Oliver’s surprise pre-election announcement of the government’s intention to add a voluntary component to the Canada Pension Plan. Here is sample of some of the buzz created by this proposal.

I wrote Voluntary CPP contributions will favour high earners on RetirementRedux and the blog was re-posted by John Chevreau on the Financial Independence Hub. I believe that too many questions remain unanswered and if voluntary CPP contributions are locked in until retirement, even when middle or low earners finally bite the bullet and set up a payroll savings plan, chances are they will opt for an RRSP or TFSA so they can get at the money in an emergency. Because employers probably won’t have to match contributions, there will be incentive for employees to contribute more money to CPP.

On Retire Happy, Jim Yih questions whether voluntary CPP contributions are a good idea. Yih also notes that the devil is in the details, and suggests that if there is no employer matching there is little difference between voluntary contributions to CPP or RRSPs (individual and group). Lower cost investing may be a plus but he says investors already have access to lower cost investments through Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

In the Globe and Mail, Bill Curry reports that the Conservative government rejected a voluntary expansion of the Canada Pension Plan five years ago as overly expensive and misguided, a history that is raising questions as to why it is now proposing that very idea. “This was rejected unanimously by our partners in the federation when we met and discussed the issue because it would not work and because the CPP would be unable to administer it,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told the House of Commons in September 2010.

In the StarPhoenix, Andrew Coyne writes Whether voluntary or mandatory, there is no need to expand the CPP. He says, “If people are saving about as much as they want to  now, then forcing them to save more in one way, through an expanded CPP, may simply result in an offsetting reduction in their other savings, in their RRSPs or TFSAs.” He also opines that those of modest means are already well-served by the existing CPP and the further you climb the income scale, the hazier the case for public intervention becomes.

And finally, a Toronto Star editorial says Harper’s pension ‘fix’ falls short. This piece suggests that by far the best way to forestall a retirement income crisis would be to expand and enhance the existing, highly acclaimed CPP, by upping the input from employers and employees alike. With $265 billion in assets and an enviable 18.3% return last year, the plan has expert management, huge scale and a low-cost structure. Employers and workers pay equally, to a combined maximum of just under $5,000 this year. It locks in contributions over the long haul and it provides a safe, predictable retirement income.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

By Sheryl Smolkin

The days are getting a little longer, Valentine’s Day was this past Saturday and in Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan it’s a long weekend. So there is lots to be happy about in spite of the never-ending winter.

But politicians who commit serious crimes won’t be happy because the Bill to revoke politicians’ pensions passed in the House of Commons would apply to future occasions when an MP or senator is convicted of crimes such as bribery or fraud. But politicians convicted of murder or distributing child pornography would not be affected. What am I missing here?

J. Money from Budgets are Sexy lists some of the guilty pleasures that he spends money on and those he items he rarely wastes money on like vending machine snacks, Uni-Ball EYE Rollerball Pens and yard sale splurges. A “no-spend month” and having kids helped him realize what’s really important in life.

Mr. Frugal Toque on Mortgage Freedom is a guest blog on Mr. Money Moustache. A year after the author paid off his mortgage he is happy he has stuck to his plan.  RRSPs topped up. Check. TFSAs maxed out. Check. And the family’s overall consumer spending has not increased.

On Personal Dividends, Miranda Marquit asks the age-old question Can Money Buy Happiness? She acknowledges y that you don’t need to live an extravagant lifestyle to be happy. However, she says that doesn’t mean that money has nothing to do with happiness. Financial security can have a lot to do with how great you feel.

And finally, if you are apprehensive about retirement or you had to take early retirement sooner than you expected, a year from now you may be happier than you could ever imagine. Why? Retirement could be your gateway to a new job says Susan Yellin on Brighter Life.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.