Making Life More Affordable for Canadians Act

This bill, called the Making Life More Affordable for Canadians Act, makes changes in four separate areas. First, it cuts the lowest federal personal income tax rate, which applies to income up to about $57,375, from 15% down to 14.5% for the 2025 tax year and then to 14% starting in 2026. This means most Canadians who pay income tax will see a small reduction in the tax owed on their basic income, since this bracket applies to everyone. The government must also report on how this change affects other tax credits calculated using that rate.

Second, the bill creates a temporary GST rebate for first-time home buyers purchasing new housing. Buyers who meet the definition of "first-time home buyer" (generally, adults who haven't owned and lived in a home as their primary residence, alone or with a spouse, in the past four years) can get an additional GST/HST rebate on top of existing new-housing rebates, for homes bought under agreements signed between March 20, 2025 and the end of 2030, with construction substantially completed by 2035. The rebate amount depends on the home's price, phasing out for homes priced between roughly $1 million and $1.5 million (with somewhat higher thresholds in some provinces to account for provincial sales tax harmonization). Rules are also included to prevent people from artificially cancelling and re-signing contracts just to qualify.

Third, the bill repeals the federal fuel charge (the "carbon tax" on gasoline, natural gas, and other fuels) under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, along with its associated regulations. This removes the federal charge that businesses and consumers paid on fuel, though the repeal of certain parts is phased in over 2025 and doesn't fully complete until 2035.

Finally, the bill changes how the Canada Elections Act treats political parties' handling of Canadians' personal information. It clarifies that federal political parties are governed by their own privacy policies rather than provincial or territorial privacy laws, sets out required contents for those policies (such as naming a privacy officer and explaining what data is collected and how), requires parties to certify compliance with their own policy, and requires Elections Canada to hold at least one annual meeting on the topic of parties' handling of personal information.

This bill lowers the lowest federal personal income tax rate, creates a temporary GST rebate for first-time home buyers, repeals the federal fuel charge regime under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, and changes the rules governing political parties' personal information policies under the Canada Elections Act.

• Tax rate change — sets the lowest federal tax bracket rate at 14.5% for 2025 and 14% for 2026 onward, replacing the prior rate structure in the Income Tax Act; the Minister of Finance must table a report within 90 days on how this affects tax credits calculated using that rate, and publish it within 10 days of tabling.
• New housing rebate — creates an additional GST/HST rebate of up to $50,000 for buyers meeting a new legal definition of "first-time home buyer," available for purchase agreements signed between March 19, 2025 and 2031, with completion deadlines before 2036; provincial variants adjust dollar thresholds for Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador; anti-avoidance rules let the Minister deny the rebate where a contract is restructured mainly to obtain it.
• Removal of fuel charge — repeals Part 1 of the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act and the Fuel Charge Regulations in stages between April 2025 and April 2035, eliminating the federal carbon fuel charge and its associated administrative provisions.
• Political party privacy rules — declares that federal law is the exclusive regime governing registered and eligible parties' handling of personal information, meaning parties cannot be required to comply with provincial or territorial privacy laws unless their own policy says otherwise; parties must publish a plain-language privacy policy naming a privacy officer, and failing to comply with that policy is deemed a "violation" under section 508.1 of the Canada Elections Act.
• Oversight mechanism — requires the Chief Electoral Officer to hold at least one meeting per calendar year on personal information protection by parties, but does not create an independent complaints or appeal process for individuals seeking access to or correction of their personal information held by a party; the Act specifically states parties cannot be required to provide such access.
• Retroactive effect — several provisions, including parts of the Canada Elections Act privacy sections, are deemed to have come into force on May 31, 2000, and housing rebate provisions are deemed to apply from March 20, 2025, before the bill's enactment date.