The penny change in no way is distracting from other parts of the budget, and as tabbyjabby mentioned it is focused on here because it has cross-border novelty that the other parts of the budget don't. But among Canadians it is a meh change -- we electronically pay for almost everything now, so the nickle will follow in short order.
> It's now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury. Councillors' expenses?
It's an extremely common practice to release unpopular information, or pass unpopular bills when something else is bound to hit the front page.