Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne delivered the first budget under Prime Minister Mark Carney, calling it “generational in its ambition.”
“There is no place for withdrawal, ambiguity, or even standing still,” Champagne said on Tuesday (Nov. 4), “only for bold and swift action.”
The $580.9 billion budget includes new 38.6 billion in added spending, but also factors in cuts to the size of the federal public service of 40,000 workers, roughly equal to 10 per cent of the workforce. These cuts are from normal attrition and retirement, as well as “further action” the government is taking to rein in spending.
The budget has a $78.3-billion deficit.
Major five-year spending packages include a $115-billion five-year infrastructure plan and $30 billion defence outlay, the most in decades.
This new defence spending is meant to help Canada meet its two-per-cent NATO spending target this year, and put it on a path to meeting the five-per-cent target set for 2035.
The budget projects $60 billion in savings over the next five years.
“We did the hard work, we took the tough decisions,” Champagne said.
There is $25 billion for housing over the next five years, which Champagne called the most “ambitious housing plan since World War Two,” with the stated goal to double the pace of housing construction in the next 10 years.
To support the economy, the budget includes $110 billion for productivity and competitiveness, also over the next five years.
Much of Champagne’s remarks focused on how this budget aims to overcome “uncertainty” in the economy that is a result of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policies.
“Around the world, tariffs have increased, growth is slowing, and trade relationships are being tested,” he said. “All of these constraints are being felt across the country by Canadians in their daily lives.”
Expectations for the budget
B.C. Premier David Eby said earlier in the day he hoped to see some support for the North Coast Transmission Line in the budget, arguing this project would electrify many other revenue-generating resource projects.
He reckons these projects will subsidize others throughout the country.
“Someone has to generate revenue through private sector projects,” he said, “and British Columbia is far and away the province bringing these projects to the table that are realistic, that are going to happen, to have proponents, and that already have demonstrated commitments.”
The budget includes funds to boost projects — a “generational investment strategy,” as it is put in the budget — that involves building a “clean electricity grid.”
Champagne also talked about the need for clean electricity in his budget speech, adding, “We’re going to make a historic investment in Canada’s north.”
The North Coast Transmission Line is not mentioned by name.
More to come.