Financial Measures (2024) Act Introduced

Finance and Treasury Board Minister Allan MacMaster introduced the Financial Measures (2024) Act today, March 5.

The bill includes a key part of Budget 2024-25: the indexation of personal income tax brackets and non-refundable tax credits, including the spousal amount, the dependant amount, the infirm dependant amount and the age amount.

“Nova Scotians have been asking for tax relief and these changes mean they will pay less in income tax every year this is in place,” said Minister MacMaster. “This bill also advances priorities like housing and healthcare and modernizes other legislation that have budget, financial or governance implications.”

The bill extends the Executive Panel on Housing in the Halifax Regional Municipality for two additional years and amends the Municipal Government Act to support housing development across the province by cutting red tape and streamlining the process of getting new housing approved. These amendments include:

• enabling electronic submission of planning documents
• allowing development officers to approve non-substantive development agreement amendments and municipal councils to provisionally approve a development agreement
• permitting councils to sell or lease property below market value for any purpose deemed beneficial by council, such as housing development.

Other changes proposed by the Financial Measures (2024) Act include:

• extending the life of business tax credits that help drive the economy, including the Innovation Equity Tax Credit, Digital Animation Tax Credit, Digital Media Tax Credit and the Venture Capital Tax Credit
• allowing provincially regulated credit lenders to implement changes to variable interest rates without a 30-day notice, allowing them to be more responsive when the prime interest rate changes, similar to larger financial institutions, and requiring them to disclose the annual interest rate in effect to consumers
• ensuring that only chartered professional accountants can perform compilation engagements and requiring out-of-province accountants who wish to provide accounting services in Nova Scotia remotely to be registered with the provincial regulating body
• increasing maximum fines to deter illegal activity in the fisheries sector to $1 million from $100,000 for the first offence and up to $2 million for subsequent offences
• replacing excessively detailed revenue royalty calculations for gypsum mining with a simpler calculation set in regulations, following a review
• authorizing Halifax Harbour Bridges to collect licence plate information and allowing the commission and Registry of Motor Vehicles to share plateholder information, which will allow for modernization of toll systems on the Macdonald and MacKay bridges and pave the way for removing toll booths
• broadening the mandate of the Highway 104 Western Alignment Corporation to include other 100-series highways across the province to allow excess toll revenue collected by the corporation to be reallocated to other highways; this change comes after tolls on the 104 were removed for Nova Scotia vehicles
• establishing a framework for municipalities to create codes of conduct for mayors, wardens and councillors, where none currently exists
• creating a new pathway for villages to request a name change, addressing a gap in the current Municipal Government Act
• enabling continuity in the Peggys Cove Commission’s work if there is a vacant position
• updating pension unlocking rules to apply to people with a shortened life expectancy or non-residents of Canada
• requiring health providers to provide records so that Nova Scotians can view their health information through the YourHealthNS app.

Two new acts are being proposed:

• The Professional Firefighters Volunteer Act will provide protections for volunteer firefighters by prohibiting organizations from refusing to employ a person who is working or intends to work as a volunteer firefighter and from penalizing or otherwise disciplining a professional firefighter because they have worked, is working or intends to work as a volunteer firefighter.

• The Independent Office for Children and Youth Act sets the stage for the creation of an independent office to improve and ensure the rights and well-being of children and youth and will be one of the legacies of the Restorative Inquiry into the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children.

Quick Facts:

• compilation engagements involve the preparation of financial statements using information provided by the client or the client’s bookkeeper and no assurance is provided; the report attached to the financial statements under the previous standard is a “Notice to Reader” that simply informs the reader that the accountant has not performed an audit or review of the financial statements

Additional Resources:

Bills tabled in the legislature are available at: https://nslegislature.ca/legislative-business/bills-statutes/bills/assembly-64-session-1

Budget 2024-25: https://novascotia.ca/budget/