CFFiM: PRIORITIES FOR 2025 FEDERAL BUDGET

TORONTO, Sept. 18, 2025 /CNW/ - The Canadian Forum for Financial Markets (CFFiM)/Forum Canadien des Marchés Financiers (FCMFi) is dedicated to advancing proposals that foster healthy, competitive financial markets and a stronger, more resilient Canadian economy.

Ahead of the November 4, 2025 federal budget, CFFiM submitted the following recommendations to the Department of Finance Canada.

Chart a Credible Path to Budget Balance

• Reinstate the debt-to-GDP ratio as the government's fiscal anchor, with a clear commitment to bring it below its pre-pandemic level over the medium term.

Review All Federal Spending

• Conduct a full review of all federal spending – not limited to direct program expenses – including tax preferences.

Reduce Reliance on Economically Harmful Taxes

• Reduce the second-lowest marginal personal income tax rate from 20.5% to 14% over six years.
• Cut the federal statutory corporate income tax rate by 1 percentage point in 2026 and another in 2027 (from 15% to 13%).
• Increase the GST rate by 1 percentage point in 2026 and another in 2027 (from 5% to 7%).
• Launch an independent review of the federal tax system, guided by the core principles of good tax policy: neutrality, efficiency, fairness, and simplicity.

Improve Tax-Assisted Retirement Savings 

RRIFs

• Gradually increase the conversion age of RRSPs to RRIFs from 71 to 74.
• Gradually reduce mandatory RRIF withdrawal rates, aiming to eliminate them.

RRSPs

• Gradually increase the contribution limit for defined contribution pension plans and RRSPs from 18% to 30%.

Qualified Investments (QIs) for Registered Plans

• Make it easier to hold shares of small businesses in registered plans, and classify all derivatives that trade on a designated stock exchange as QIs.

Stimulate Investment in Early-Stage, Unlisted Businesses With High Growth Potential

• Introduce a program similar to the UK Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS).

Support Competition

• Review federally-regulated oligopolies, including banking.
• Swiftly move forward on open banking.
• Consider tax free corporate spinoffs akin to s. 355 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.

Streamline Financial Services Regulation

• Pursue a national securities regulator.

Read the CFFiM's full submission online.

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SOURCE Canadian Forum for Financial Markets (CFFiM)

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