The budget proposes $120 billion of investment in infrastructure and job creation over the next ten years, including significant investments in public transit, clean technology, and First Nations, Inuit Peoples and the Metis Nation.

Some of the key features of the budget plan were:

• Mr. Morneau indicated that the deficit for 2015-2016 will be $5.4 billion while a deficit of $29.4 billion is predicted for 2016-2017. The deficit is projected to decline gradually reaching $14.3 billion by 2020-2021.
• This budget proposes to keep the small business tax rate at 10.5 percent after 2016 rather than reducing this rate to 9% by 2019 as announced in the previous budget.
• Where the exception to the deemed association corporation rules applies (i.e., an election not to be associated is made or the third corporation is not a CCPC), the budget proposes to make investment income derived from an associated corporation’s active business ineligible for the small business deduction and taxable at the general corporate tax rate.
• This budget contains proposals regarding certain recommendations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as set out in its final reports on its base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) initiative, released in October 2015. 

A summary of the economic and tax highlights contained in the budget is outlined in our Canadian tax alert. 

For further details, we refer you to the Ministry of Finance website.