Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau delivered the 2019 federal budget in the House of Commons Tuesday afternoon.

The budget, which is bringing in more money than originally forecast, will be running a $19.8 billion deficit for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. This was the year the federal government originally said would show a surplus, according to the Liberal election platform during the 2015 campaign. The deficit does include a $3 billion contingency fund.

The numbers in the budget also include an economic growth outlook at 1.8 percent, compared to 1.9 percent which was projected in the fall.

One of the key points of the budget is changes to help first-time home buyers. A means-tested incentive introduced in the budget will be available to households with an income under $120,000, and mortgages no more than four times the household’s total income.

Those who qualify will be able to have the government pick up part of the cost of their mortgages to lower their monthly payments.

Additionally, the amount of money Canadians will be allowed to pull from retirement saving plans to help pay for the purchase of a first home will be increased up to $35,000. There will also be some cases where Canadians will be allowed to dip into the savings a second time, such as the case of a relationship breakdown.

The issue of a universal pharmacare program was also included in the federal budget. A new national drug agency is set to be created with the goal to lower medication costs. This is expected to bring down the costs of medication for Canadians by up to $3 billion.

The plan comes after a panel of experts recommended the province set up a national drug plan.

A new tax credit announced in the budget is to help Canadians upgrade skills in the marketplace, as well as get help to pay their bills while taking time off for skills training. The measures are intended to help prepare for shifts in the labour market in the future.

Canadians will be able to use a $250 refundable tax credit for training, which can be saved over time. The plan comes with a price tag of $710 million over the next five years. The credit would launch in late 2020 and will apply to the costs of programs at eligible post-secondary institutions.

There will also be the creation of a new employment insurance benefit, which would allow for up to 55 percent of earnings to be covered for those who take time off from a job for training. The plan is anticipated to cost $1.04 billion over the next five years.

The benefit could see an increase in EI premiums, with the Liberals promising a break to small businesses to offset the increase. The costs themselves won’t be known until the EI rates are set later this year.

Changes will also be coming to how stock options are taxed, so executives of large, established companies will pay more in tax.

The current rules tax stock option benefits at half the normal rate of personal income, similarly to capital gains. The plan announced by the Liberal government will put a $200,000 cap on stock option gains per year. Start-ups and rapidly growing businesses will be excluded from the cap, so the stock options can be used to attract and reward employees.

There will be $1.8 billions over five years to improve border security, and to speed up the processing of claims of asylum seekers at the border.

Over 40,000 asylum seekers have crossed into Canada irregularly since 2017, avoiding official border crossings where they would have been turned away under the Safe Third Country agreement between Canada and the United States.

The biggest ticket item in the whole budget is money to help compensate dairy, egg and poultry farmers across the country who are affected by recent free trade agreements. There is $2.15 billion being set aside for supply managed farmers who lose income through deals with countries on the other side of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Another $1.5 billion will be to compensate farmers who lose money when they sell in the three protected domestic markets, which Canada agreed to open up to more foreign competition in free-trade agreements.  

The budget didn't include the framework for when and how the money will be distributed to producers, who have been against any move which would open them up to foreign competition.

We will have reaction and analysis on how the 2019 federal budget will impact Weyburn and southeast Saskatchewan in the coming hours.