Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is set to present the federal government’s spring economic statement in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters the update would be focused on “delivering a strong Canada for all Canadians,” but was otherwise tightlipped about what Champagne would be presenting.
Other Liberal cabinet members were similarly hesitant to share details, other than promising “good news.”
“I think we have to demonstrate that, notwithstanding that there are real challenges on the horizon for the Canadian economy, that there’s a plan in place to help ensure that we grow the Canadian economy in a way that works for everybody,” Justice Minister Sean Fraser said.
“That means making sure that the economy grows, but households have the means to get by.”
Champagne himself blew past reporters without answering questions about the statement while heading into the Liberal cabinet meeting Tuesday morning.
April 28 is also the anniversary of the Liberals’ win in last year’s federal election. While Carney won a minority government at the time, he now has a majority and the spring economic statement is expected to be adopted more quickly as a result.
Get breaking National news
The Liberals last year switched the schedule for tabling the annual federal budget and the mid-year economic update, which in prior years had been presented in the fall.
That makes this upcoming update the first under the Carney-led Liberal government, which opted to wait until last fall to present its federal budget plan.
The spring economic update comes a day after Carney announced that Canada is getting its first sovereign wealth fund, with an initial endowment of $25 billion.
- Carney to attend European summit in Armenia with focus on trade, defence
- Corrections staff at N.S. prison assaulted by inmate as union says violence on the rise
- Food affordability outweighs taste, nutrition for Canadians: report
- Pedestrians hit by air rifle pellets from moving car in Kingston, police say
The Liberals’ fall budget — the first under Carney’s leadership — projected a deficit of $78.3 billion for the last fiscal year, with deficits declining and averaging around $64 billion annually over the five-year horizon.
The federal government last week posted a budgetary deficit of $25.5 billion for the first 11 months of its 2025-26 fiscal year.
The result from the Finance Department’s fiscal monitor compared with a deficit of $19.3 billion for the same period of 2024-25.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre criticized the federal Liberals’ increased spending on Sunday, which he has blamed for inflation, and dismissed the lower deficit figures.
“Wait for March madness — that’s when Liberals like to push all the money out the door to their friends, and that’s where the deficit goes soaring,” he said at a press conference in Toronto.
—With files from the Canadian Press
Cue Ball Cochrane blew his load in his pants with Carney bogus “wealth” fund.
@Jeff Bozos sure … when he was governor of the bank of England his fiscal policies created inflation of 11 percent when the rest of Europe was only 7 percent. Such a brilliant scholar … NOT !!!
@ the “Economist” lolol…that’s why he aced Harvard AND Oxford, the Bank of Canada, the bank of England, and the private sector too?
PP? not even a “will there be fries with that?” job? You?
@Sarnia: You left out the socks. That’s all you guys bleated about. lol…and then the socks were gone and so so slogan PP.
Libs have good news apparently. They don’t spend as much money as they thought. But still an eye watering number with more debt added outside Covid.
At least they have no one else to blame but themselves now, cant wait to see them crumble under their own corrupt glutenous weight
Carneys “wealth” fund is a debt fund. Canada has no wealth to invest, just more credit. Carney is no whiz by any means.
@Marylin
Libs didn’t mind a part time drama teacher/ snow board instructor being PM for 10 years. As for you, your riding will go back to Conservative next election
Real Conservatives are beginning to see Carney’s vast experience in the private sector. PP? Not even a paper route.
Fact.
“With Prime Minister Carney, we have a leader different from Mr. Trudeau when it comes to the economy, natural resources, defence. Now, we are spending 2% of our GDP on defence,”
It boggles my mind how financially inept the Conservative supporters are. The ones who contribute the least to society are always confused by financial progress.
Don’t worry Cons your proven failure of a leader will come up with a new slogan about it because he doesn’t understand financial strategy either.
The best thing to happen to the Liberal party was little PP showing up and providing us a majority.
I hope he never gives up his position. Bahahaha
Carney and Trudeau have managed to take Canadian deficits to almost $100,000,000,000 one hundred billion dollars and our national debt has more than doubled to over a TRILLION Dollars under those two financial geniuses. We, taxpayers, not government, pay over a BILLION Dollars in interest alone on Carney and Trudeau’s debt EVERY WEEK !!! That is the equivalent of building a new hospital every week. Yet our health care and living standards are plummeting. Great job Carney and the Liberals.
More smoke and mirrors from Carney. If his lips are moving then you know he is BSing Canadians yet again.
This is going to be all smoke and mirrors today. Canadians know Carney and this Liberal government have done nothing but spend money and allowed prices of food and other essentials to keep going up. They have done nothing to fix the economy, nothing about the tariffs and they made big promises and never fulfilled them. Canada’s economy is going down the drain fast. Companies closing good paying jobs lost high prices, people using food banks in record numbers and Canadians living on the street that’s Canada’s fiscal update
The Liberal Party is a “master of finance”. Come on! Trudeau’s Liberal Party has managed to sort out all its finances and is just one step away from the Third World. Under Carney’s tenure, the deficit is close to exceeding 100 billion. Financial expert: Have you legally transferred all the wealth of Canadian tax citizens to the officials’ own households? How shameless! The estimated deficit is 80 billion and the budget is 60 billion. How dare you say you are a financial expert? Show some face, please!