Canada's proposed budget sees deficit rise to $78B, aims to shift spending from programs to investment

Finance government minister delivers budget spoken language, oppositeness leaders respond

Why should you care about the federal deficit?

A big deficit is coming. Will it be what Canada needs?

What do students want from the federal budget?

It will be ‘tough’ to support Carney’s first budget: NDP MP

Could the budget trigger an election?

Carney says he’d defend budget in an election if necessary

One of the greatly anticipated parts of the Liberals' budget was more details on cuts to the civil service and social programs. While the budget provides a framework for those cuts, it doesn't say where and when they'll happen.

Its plan is to save $13 billion every year by 2028-29 through a "comprehensive expenditure review."

Part of those savings would come from 40,000 fewer positions through cuts and attrition. Last year, the government had 368,000 civil servants. It wants that number to decrease to 330,000 by 2028-29.

Hi folks, I’m Darren with the parliamentary bureau’s digital team.

Today’s budget includes the government’s immigration levels plans for the next few years. The levels plan is released annually and broadly outlines how many new immigrants Canada is aiming to welcome over the next three years.

The new levels plan significantly reduces the targeted number of temporary residents compared to last year.

Canada will aim to admit only 385,000 temporary residents next year — about 43 per cent less than the 2025 target — and 370,000 in the following two years.

The target for 2026 is down by about a quarter compared to the immigration plan released last year, which had said Canada would welcome more than 516,000 temporary residents.

The new targets suggest the government is shifting its focus to temporary residents as it attempts to reduce the number of immigrants Canada welcomes. You can read more details here.

Carney recommends 5 nation-building projects for approval — but no oil pipeline

The first five major nation-building projects to be reviewed for fast-tracking were announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday. It includes Phase 2 of LNG Canada in Kitimat, B.C., to double its production of liquefied natural gas, and the construction of small modular reactors next to the Darlington nuclear generating station in Clarington, Ont. But, the list of country-wide projects doesn’t include an oil pipeline.

The government has set a target of bringing in $500 billion in private investment over the next five years, which it says could increase real GDP by 3.5 per cent by 2030. A lot of that investment rests on the success of the newly-established Major Projects Office. The first five projects that office is fast-tracking, announced in August, are:

That's $78.3 billion, the projected deficit for 2025-2026. While many of the initiatives in the budget were already announced — think housing strategy and major projects — the number many have been waiting for is the deficit.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre even said his support of the budget overall would hinge on the deficit not rising above $42 billion.

Some estimates, based on announced spending and tariff-related expenses, had put the deficit as high as $75 billion to $90 billion. The budget predicts that deficit would go down to $65 billion in the next fiscal year and $64 billion the year after that, in 2027-2028.

The budget says it would reduce the government's operating costs by $60 billion over the next five years, reducing direct program spending from eight per cent to under one per cent of the country's GDP. Pharmacare, for example, would receive no new money.

The new Liberal government under Carney used big words to qualify its first budget ahead of tabling it today; words like "generational" and "transformational."

Inside the budget itself, there's more hyperbole. It says it will "supercharge growth," "supercharge major project development," "supercharge the housing industry," "supercharge innovation," and so on.

It also announces a "Productivity Super-Deduction," which would allow businesses to expense more capital investments and do so faster.

Whether the budget lives up to its promises is hard to say for now. The return on these billions of dollars of investment could take years.

The government is essentially betting on industry and the private sector to step up. The budget promises to unlock more than $1 trillion in new spending, but 493-page document is lighter on details about where exactly the government’s larger investments are going — aside from, say, the major projects it's already earmarked to fast-track — and where we're going to be seeing cuts.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne has just tabled the Liberal government's long-awaited budget.

The budget reflects the government's strategy to try to steer the country into calmer economic waters amid rising unemployment and weak productivity. Tariffs and trade uncertainty from the United States are already slowing the Canadian economy and prompting worrying a worrying economic outlook.

"The level of uncertainty is higher than what we have seen and felt for generations," Champagne said, adding "autonomy is and continues to be the best approach to achieve real resilience."

Champagne and Prime Minister Mark Carney are betting on capital investments — for example on major infrastructure projects, like new ports, mines and LNG terminals — to bring in as much as $1 trillion in investments into the country.

To do that, it says it wants to spend $280 billion over five years on new infrastructure — $141 billion of which represents new spending.

The government says it will save about $51 billion over the next five years through cuts and other savings, in part through slashing operational costs.

What do students want from the federal budget?

“They’re living through really uncertain economic times today … and the idea of buying a house is becoming further out of reach,” Song said, summing up some students’ fears.

For some, just being able to afford rent was a top concern. Some others Song spoke with said they were still trying to move out of their parents’ homes but have found that nearly impossible with the current cost of living.

Many also worried they might not be able to find a job upon graduation.

Those worries make sense, given the youth unemployment rate edged up to 14.6 per cent in July, according to Statistics Canada, the highest it’s been since 2010 excluding the pandemic years.

It will be ‘tough’ to support Carney’s first budget: NDP MP

Mark Carney needs to find three votes from opposition parties to get his budget passed after he presents it on Nov. 4 — or risk triggering an election. Here’s what NDP MP Heather McPherson says her party needs to support it.

While he hasn’t spelled out specific demands, interim NDP Leader Don Davies has said his party wants targeted investments that "support working families squeezed by high prices," "good jobs," affordable homes, and investments to "strengthen public health care."

Davies has also signalled his party won’t support an “austerity” budget that includes deep cuts, but said he wants to actually see the document before making a firm decision.

Meanwhile, the Bloc Québécois said it would like to see higher pension payouts for seniors and more health-care spending — which are unlikely, given the Carney government’s pledge to rein in spending.

Over the weekend, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he would need to read the details of today’s budget before deciding whether his party would oppose it.

“I don’t have telepathic powers to tell you what’s in it,” Poilievre said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live that aired Sunday. “If it were to bring down the cost of living — an affordable budget for affordable living is something that I support."

The Conservatives have laid out a few key demands to the Liberals for the budget, including scrapping the industrial carbon tax and keeping the deficit below $42 billion.

When Barton asked why he would accept a deficit that high, Poilievre said, “it’s not OK, but it is the disastrous state we’re in after 10 years of Liberal government."

“I would like a zero deficit, but the Liberals have put us in this mess, and I work with what I’ve got.”

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