The federal government is shifting when it releases the budgets going forward, a move that comes after the decision announced last month to release Budget 2025 on Nov. 4.
This means the economic update, which normally occurs near the end of the year, will now be pushed to the spring of each year under Prime Minister Mark Carney.
In a release from the Department of Finance, the government says this move is aimed at “modernizing” the budget timeline to better line up with the timelines of other sectors and industries like “builders, businesses, investors, provinces, territories, and municipalities.”
“Starting with Budget 2025, the federal budget will be tabled in the fall, with an economic and fiscal update released in the spring,” the release said.
“This change will provide the certainty and predictability needed to plan ahead and ensure projects can begin as soon as construction season starts – helping every level of government make smarter, faster investment decisions.”
Budgets are normally announced in the early spring to mirror the end of the government’s fiscal year, with a fall economic update usually following near the end of the year, but the timelines shifted in 2025 after a summer recess and following the election in the spring.
The government also says the upcoming budget is expected to include a new “Capital Budgeting Framework” aimed at providing more transparency on government spending — specifically differentiating between capital and operational.
“By distinguishing day-to-day operational spending from capital investment, this new framework will guide decisions and help prioritize investments that generate long-term benefits for Canadians, such as major projects, housing, clean energy, and infrastructure that will help grow our economy and attract private investments,” the government said in the statement.
“It will enhance—not replace—existing financial reporting, while providing a clearer picture of the investments that strengthen Canada’s economy for decades to come. The Public Accounts of Canada will remain fully compliant with Public Sector Accounting Standards.”
Shortly after the government made the announcement on Monday, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne spoke to reporters ahead of an appearance before a parliamentary committee.
“I think the capital budgeting framework is to provide more clarity, more transparency. You’re going to be able to say, ‘OK, where is the government of Canada investing my money?'” Champagne said to reporters in Ottawa on Monday.
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“There’s going to be a part where they do the expenditure and the other one on capital, but all of that will be to provide more information. You’ve seen in the U.K. and Singapore — many countries have moved to that to provide more transparency, more clarity.”
In addition to an updated operational budget, the federal government is expected to include the spending plans for a swath of “nation building” projects aimed at bolstering the economy amid the trade war.
The federal deficit is expected to balloon in the near term as a result of the project spending, including on defence to meet NATO targets, and according to the Liberal federal campaign platform the operating budget will be balanced by Budget 2028.
“The date they tell Canadians how bad inflation and deficits are going to be isn’t going to give comfort to anybody,” Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer said during question period in the House of Commons on Monday.
Champagne defends approach at committee
Champagne appeared at the House of Commons finance committee on Monday, where members grilled him over Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer Jason Jacques’ claim last month that the current pace of government spending is “unsustainable.”
Conservative MPs accused the Liberals of covering up the government’s real fiscal position.
“Debt is still debt at the end of the day,” said Conservative finance critic and committee vice-chair Jasraj Singh Hallan. “It doesn’t matter how many columns you try to put in front of Canadians to try and trick them.”
Champagne called the Conservatives’ arguments “irresponsible.”
He argued the split between capital and operating is a new “lens” on government finances that will augment — not replace — traditional accounting metrics tracking Ottawa’s revenues, debts and deficits in the budget.
“The capital budgeting framework is to provide more clarity, more transparency,” Champagne said Monday. “It’s an additional lens. It’s not replacing anything.”
Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc Québécois MP and finance committee vice-chair, said he is not satisfied with the federal government’s new fall budget schedule.
Garon told reporters after Champagne’s appearance that the finance minister has been in his role since Carney took office in March and has had ample opportunity to table a fiscal update.
“What the minister tells us is that he’s been doing things so wrong that he needs to change the rules, and I think that’s not acceptable at the moment,” he said.
Garon said he would prefer to stick to the spring timeline, which allows provinces and parliamentarians to align their plans with a federal budget tabled near the start of the fiscal year.
—With files from the Canadian Press
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