How the budget affects you, from a $150 cheque to a $1.5

Now that the dust has settled on the 2025 federal budget announcement, it’s time to see how ordinary Canadians might see their everyday lives affected by some of the government’s decisions . Here are a few takeaways.

More money from a deposited cheque

If you’re the type who still deposits paper cheques in the ATM (or hands them to a bank teller) there’s good news. The budget proposes raising the amount of money immediately available from a just-deposited cheque to $150 from the current $100.

“Access to cheque fund rules are now over a decade old and have not kept pace with cost-of-living increases or technological advances,” the budget document notes.

It also plans to reduce the number of days banks may hold deposited cheque funds before releasing them to customers, and to raise