On March 28, 2023, Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, delivered the Liberal Government’s federal budget, “A Made-in-Canada Plan: Strong Middle Class, Affordable Economy, Healthy Future” (“Budget 2023”). Tax measures of interest in the labour and employment law space include:

• rules for the establishment and use of new “Employee Ownership Trusts,” which are designed to facilitate the purchase of businesses by employees; and
• proposed amendments to assist employers that sponsor retirement compensation arrangements (“RCA”) that are not pre-funded by the employer. For an RCA that is supplemental to a registered pension plan, Budget 2023 will exempt letter of credit (or surety bond) fees or premiums from the refundable RCA tax and will create a mechanism for an RCA to recover refundable tax previously paid.

For a discussion of these tax measures and others in Budget 2023, please see McCarthy Tétrault’s Budget 2023 Commentary.