I'm Suzanne Kennedy, senior director of equalization and territorial formula financing policy.
In the BIA, there are two changes concerning equalization.
One is to extend the authority to make payments. The authority to make payments is reviewed every five years, and it expires March 31, 2024. The BIA will extend that for another five years. The government announced in budget 2023 that it would also make technical changes following consultations with provinces and territories. Those will be mainly brought forward through the standard regulatory process.
There is one change in the BIA concerning miscellaneous revenues. Right now, miscellaneous revenues are grouped with property taxes for the purpose of equalization. The proposal is to distribute them across all of the relevant non-resource revenue sources. Those would include personal incomes, business income taxes, consumption taxes and property taxes for the purpose of equalization.