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OTTAWA — Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled the 2022 federal budget on Thursday. Here are some of the highlights:

— $452.3 billion in new spending on projected revenue of $408.4 billion for a deficit of $52.8 billion. The debt to GDP ratio is pegged at 45.1 per cent.

— $4 billion over the next five years to launch a new fund in the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Housing and Mortgage Corporation to help cities and municipalities create more affordable housing, and $1.5 billion over two years to the CMHC’s Rapid Housing Initiative to create 6,000 new affordable housing units with at least one-quarter of the funding dedicated to women-focused projects.

— $625 million over four years, starting in 2023-24, for child care, to help the provinces and territories build new facilities and make new investments. The new funding is a followup to the various federal child-care agreements with the provinces and territories after they raised concerns that non-profit and public providers were facing soaring real estate and building material costs.

— $1 billion over five years, starting in 2022-23, to create an independent federal innovation and investment agency. The measure is designed to spur economic growth and address the fact that sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ is ranked last in the G7 in spending on research and development by business.

— The defence budget got new money with more than $8 billion pledged over five years to better equip the Canadian Armed Forces, reinforce cybersecurity and support a culture of change. The budget contained no road map on whether this would be enough to boost sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½â€™s defence spending to the NATO target of two per cent of GDP, as the alliance works to bolster Europe following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

— Up to $1 billion in new loan resources for the Ukrainian government through the International Monetary Fund to help keep its embattled government operating.

— $4 billion over six years, starting in 2021-22, to remove systemic barriers to First Nations children receiving services in health, education and social services. The funds are part of the government’s commitment to Jordan’s Principle, which started in 2016.

— $5.3 billion over five years starting in 2022-23 and $1.7 billion ongoing to Health sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ to provide dental care to Canadians as a result of the Liberal-NDP agreement. The plan will start with children under 12 in 2022 at an initial cost of $300 million.

— $1.7 billion over five years starting in 2022-23 to help make zero-emission vehicles more affordable for people. The Canadian Infrastructure Bank will spend $500 million over five years to build infrastructure to support the 1,500 charging stations that the government has promised to build throughout sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½.

— $547 million over four years starting in 2022-23 to help businesses upgrade their fleets to zero-emission vehicles.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2022.

The Canadian Press