Federal Budget: 1)Liberals survive first confidence test of budget; 2)Carney says budget built for a ‘crucial time’ of global trade disruption; 3) Government needs opposition support on budget vote to avoid a winter election;4) Champagne’s biggest test yet — selling a ‘generational’ budget to anxious Canadians 5)Finance minister says budget will offer no surprises, make ‘generational investments’; 6)MARK Carney’s first budget plots a sharp departure from past fiscal plans; 7) What the federal Liberals are pitching in their upcoming budget
1)Liberals survive first confidence test of budget
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Sarah Ritchie, November 7, 2025
The minority Liberal government has survived the first of three confidence tests on its federal budget.
Conservative Sub-Amendment Defeated
Members of Parliament have voted to defeat a Conservative sub-amendment in the House of Commons, with 139 MPs voting for the motion and 198 MPs voting against it.
The sub-amendment called on MPs to reject the budget on the basis that the government did not present “an affordable budget so Canadians can have an affordable life.”
Upcoming Votes on Bloc Amendment
Members of Parliament are set to vote Friday on an amendment to the budget that was proposed by the Bloc.
If the government loses the vote, or the main vote on the budget itself, it will have lost the confidence of the House, which could trigger an election.
Bloc’s Unusual Opportunity
The Bloc had a highly unusual opportunity on Wednesday to propose the main amendment to the budget — after Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre missed his chance. The Bloc amendment calls on MPs to reject the budget because it is “harmful to Quebec.”
Traditionally, the Official Opposition leader amends the budget after their speech to the House of Commons. The third party then has a chance to add a sub-amendment.
Confidence Votes Explained
Government House leader Steven MacKinnon’s office said the votes are considered matters of confidence because both amendments call on MPs to reject the budget.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters he’s heard from Canadians this week who are happy with the budget.
“I would invite any member of the opposition, go in the street, talk to people, and you’ll see what they tell you,” he said.
Floor-Crossing Rumors and Speculation
Parliament Hill has been buzzing with rumours and speculation after Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont left the Conservative caucus on Tuesday, just hours after the budget was released, and joined the Liberals.
The move puts the government within two seats of a majority and the Liberals are reportedly trying to woo more opposition MPs.
Alberta Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux’s office released a statement Wednesday saying he was not planning to cross the floor and was remaining a member of the Conservative caucus.
However, on Thursday, Jeneroux announced his resignation, saying in a letter that it was “not an easy decision” but he believed it was the “right one.”
Poilievre said on social media that Jeneroux plans to step down as a member of Parliament next spring.
Conservatives Respond to Rumours
Quebec MP Dominique Vien released a video in which she addressed floor-crossing rumours and reaffirmed that she’s a Conservative Party of Canada MP.
Quebec MP Gérard Deltell told reporters in Quebec City on Thursday that d’Entremont’s departure was an isolated event.
“There won’t be any other departures, that’s the reality, whether it’s in Quebec or elsewhere,” he said.
His caucus colleague Jacques Gourde seemed less certain, however. He told reporters he didn’t think any more MPs will leave but that he couldn’t “guarantee anything.”
Main Budget Vote After Break
The main vote on the budget will happen after Parliament takes a weeklong break next week.
Liberal MP Sean Casey told reporters that in spite of all the posturing this week, he thinks the House will find a way to pass the budget.
“People recognize deep down that they will be punished for forcing a Christmas election,” he said.
2) Carney says budget built for a ‘crucial time’ of global trade disruption
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Craig Lord, November 5, 2025
The federal budget is a “bold response” to meet a crucial moment of global trade disruption, deep divisions and accelerating technological change, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday as he began the task of selling the first government budget tabled under his watch.
“These profound changes require a bold response, and that’s what we got yesterday,” Carney said, at a news conference in a public transit yard in Ottawa.
Carney said the budget looks to position Canada as a global leader in manufacturing and construction while slowing spending growth over the next few years.
He was joined at the event by Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont, who left the Conservative caucus to join the Liberals on Tuesday, moving them within two votes of a majority.
They’ll need to find those votes — or abstentions — if they are to get the budget passed and survive the confidence vote which could trigger a federal election.
The budget — which includes nearly $90 billion in net new spending over five years after government cost-savings goals are taken into account — received a lukewarm reception from opposition leaders.
Carney said there’s “a lot in this budget” that reflects input from other parties. He said there’s alignment across the government and opposition parties on aspects of the budget.
Peter Bethlenfalvy, Ontario’s finance minister, said Wednesday he spoke to his federal counterpart after the budget was released and described the spending plan as lacking “some ambition.”
“It’s less transformational. It’s more tinkering,” he told reporters at Queen’s Park.
Bethlenfalvy said the budget falls short on infrastructure support for the provinces and further tariff relief for the auto sector that supports the economies of many southwestern Ontario cities.
Carney was touting a $51 billion fund for local infrastructure — bridges, roads, hospitals and transit systems — in Ottawa on Wednesday morning.
He pushed back against critics and analysts who said the budget does not do enough to encourage investment.
Carney argued the budget offers a “sea change” by reducing operational spending and ramping up government capital investment. Adjustments to the tax code allowing businesses to write off their own capital spending in the first year also make the country a more attractive place to invest in the face of protectionist U.S. policies, he said.
“Look, I’ve been around a lot of budgets,” he said. “This is a very different budget.”
Champagne will speak with business leaders during an armchair discussion in Montreal later Wednesday, where he was expected to promote the government’s plan to deliver what he calls “generational, transformational investments.”
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem is expected to face questions about his view on the budget when he appears Wednesday afternoon at a House of Commons committee meeting.
— with files from Catherine Morrison in Ottawa and Allison Jones in Toronto
3) Government needs opposition support on budget vote to avoid a winter election
Courtesy Barrie360 and Canadian Press
By David Baxter, November 4, 2025
Federal politicians of all stripes say they don’t want the coming budget vote to trigger a Christmas election — but nobody’s ruling it out, meaning voters might soon have to resist the temptation to drop a lump of coal in a ballot box.
Government House leader Steven MacKinnon said recently the government did not yet have the votes to pass the budget being tabled Tuesday afternoon, which comes up for a vote later this month.
MacKinnon has called on Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre to not be “grinchy” and to get his MPs to back the budget.
Poilievre said during question period Monday that if the government tables an “affordable” budget, it can avoid an early election.
“The prime minister says Canadians who can’t afford to eat, heat or house themselves need to make more, quote, ‘sacrifices,'” Poilievre said.
“The choice for us is simple. If the budget brings down the cost of living, we’ll support it. If it brings up the cost of living, just like every other Liberal budget, we will vote no.”
Poilievre has previously said that Prime Minister Mark Carney must keep the deficit under $42 billion, cut income taxes and eliminate the industrial carbon price to win Conservative support.
In response, MacKinnon said the budget will be affordable and build opportunities for “all Canadians.”
The budget vote, like all government spending bills, is a confidence matter. This means the government collapses if the budget bill fails to pass, triggering a snap election.
The Liberals are three seats shy of a majority government, so they need either a handful of opposition votes or a sufficient number of abstentions to pass the bill.
Interim NDP leader Don Davies told CBC News over the weekend that the members of his caucus have not ruled out abstaining from the budget vote, but they want to see the document before making a decision.
“We’re not speculating at all on how we’re going to vote. We’re going to wait and see the budget. If it’s good for working people, we’ll support it. If it’s not, we won’t,” Davies said on his way into question period Monday.
Christine Normandin, the Bloc Québécois House leader, said in French during question period Monday that the public is not impressed by the government citing the threat of an early election to press the opposition into supporting the budget.
She said the Liberals should instead work more closely with the opposition parties because Canadians elected a minority government in April.
Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet has said his party is unlikely to support the budget unless its demands are met. Those demands include increasing old-age security payments and boosting health transfers to the provinces.
Carney met privately with opposition leaders in recent weeks to talk about the government’s priorities heading into the budget.
Fred DeLorey, Conservative campaign manager for the 2021 election, told The Canadian Press that there still could be negotiations and amendments made to the budget in order to win enough opposition support.
He added, however, that he doesn’t believe the Carney government will last much longer because the current friction between the parties guarantees an early election.
“The NDP have everything to gain from an election and they’ll have a hard time voting for a budget that’s been called an austerity budget,” DeLorey said. “The Conservatives, their base, the new voter coalition that they’ve assembled, I don’t think they tolerate any other members voting for or abstaining on this budget.
“The government needs to figure out how they’re going to get those votes, and again, we’re in this situation where every vote over the next few weeks or months could come down to the government falling.”
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Monday morning that the budget will have something for every Canadian and contain “no surprises.”
The government has cited several priorities in the budget document, including increasing spending on capital projects, cutting the cost of government operations, increasing military spending and funding a national school food program.
DeLorey said that while the size of the deficit is expected to grow, Canadians can swallow that pill if it’s accompanied by a plan to grow the economy.
He said he expects the main question Canadians will ask of the budget is how it helps Canada survive a trade war with the U.S.
“How are we diversifying our economy and trying to continue and work (the U.S.) relationship? But also look for new relationships and get products moving and get things built?” he said. “I think that’s the big thing on Canadians’ minds is getting things built and getting our products to market.”
4) Champagne’s biggest test yet — selling a ‘generational’ budget to anxious Canadians
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Kyle Duggan, November 4, 2025
As Prime Minister Mark Carney looks to sell Canadians on his first-ever budget — one that he’s billed as containing both once-in-a generation capital spending projects and austerity measures — Liberals say he picked the right salesperson for the job.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne takes the spotlight Tuesday to present the Carney government’s first fiscal blueprint — a document delayed by half a year during the ongoing tariff war with the country’s closest trading partner.
That tariff battle threatens the country’s economy, and forms the backdrop of the entire budgetary plan.
Champagne will be engaging in down-in-the-weeds discussions with his former bank governor boss — a politician famous for his focus on policy details over politics — while also selling Main Street on what could prove to be an expensive fiscal plan.
Champagne, 55, has worn many hats during his time in politics, but no one in Ottawa would confuse him with the stodgy Bay Street backroom types who tend to end up in the job of finance minister.
He’s an old-school retail politician who prefers pressing the flesh to digital communications. Liberals tend to describe him with one word: gregarious.
“He’s the biggest, most enthusiastic bundle of energy that we have in caucus,” said Liberal MP Marc Miller, a colleague of Champagne’s for the past decade. He said the finance minister is the same person in private and in public.
“In order to be good in politics, you have to be able to present to Canadians the best case,” Miller said. “You can’t just sit there and write an op-ed and be the political equivalent of paint drying on the wall. (Champagne is) not that.”
Champagne’s nickname — adopted by former prime minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford and repeated by many more — is the “Energizer Bunny.”
But he’s also taken on a title once associated with former prime minister Jean Chrétien — the “little guy” from Shawinigan.
Jonathan Kalles, who served as Quebec adviser to Trudeau, said the fact that Champagne grew up in a small town and represents a rural riding will go a long way in helping him convince Canadians he has the plan for the moment.
“In his riding, which is not an urban riding, it’s not super wealthy people, he’s speaking with people who are struggling with cost of living,” he said.
Under the Trudeau government, a series of finance ministers tried and failed to make that link.
Bill Morneau, who grew up wealthy, struggled to show he could relate to regular Canadians and, by his own admission, stumbled when communicating significant tax changes for small businesses.
The globe-trotting Chrystia Freeland failed to connect with Canadians feeling pinched by the rising cost of living when she said she was cutting her family’s Disney+ streaming service subscription.
Champagne’s strength is in communication, and he clearly enjoys hamming it up with the public.
The minister will hand out his cell number to just about anyone and will actually follow up himself with any promised calls. He’ll also throw his own schedule into the wind just to shake hands and say hello.
“He actually wants to engage with people and not get filtered by staff,” Kalles said. “It may give his staff a heart attack, but he refuses to not be himself. He wants to have that one-on-one conversation.”
Kalles said Champagne is particularly good at remembering past encounters with members of the public, which allows him to come off as “genuine” rather than rehearsed.
Last week, Champagne said his conversations with Canadians in the street told him the country knows that this is not the time for “business as usual.”
“This is like 1945. We need to chart a new course for this country,” he said, comparing the country’s current economic situation to a crisis on the scale of the Second World War.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has warned that if the budget fails to bring down the cost of living, his party will vote against it in the current minority Parliament.
“Instead of trying to provoke a costly election on a costly budget, why not an affordable budget for an affordable life?” Poilievre said in a question period exchange on Monday.
Champagne will need to defend spending measures and cuts at the same time, along with a new accounting practice for the budget. Overall federal expenditures are expected to blow past the level the Conservatives set to restrain the deficit but will likely fall short of demands made by the Bloc Québécois.
Brought into office in the Saint-Maurice—Champlain riding during the Trudeau wave in 2015, Champagne has a decade of political experience under his belt.
He comes with a background as legal counsel in the private sector and ascended rapidly through the political ranks, from parliamentary secretary to infrastructure minister and industry minister.
Champagne has also been the subject of rumours about his possible interest in the Liberal party leadership.
Those questions were set aside by Carney’s leadership win at the beginning of the year — for the moment, at least.
5) Finance minister says budget will offer no surprises, make ‘generational investments’
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By David Baxter, November 3, 2025
Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says there will be “no surprises” when he tables a federal budget Tuesday that he promises will offer “generational investments.”
Champagne told a press conference in Saint-Tite, Que., Monday morning the budget bill will have “something for every Canadian.”
“We’re moving from reliance to resilience, from uncertainty to prosperity. We’re going to do the kind of things that will make this country stronger, and everyone will see themselves in that budget,” he said.
“So that’s why I would expect the opposition parties to be supportive.”
The government has said this budget — Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first — is built around boosting investment in Canada and shifting trade away from an increasingly protectionist U.S. under President Donald Trump.
Carney’s minority government will need the support or abstention of some opposition MPs to pass the budget bill and avoid an early election. The government is three votes shy of being able to pass the budget on its own.
The Conservatives, Bloc Québécois and NDP have stated publicly what they want to see in the budget in exchange for their support.
On Sunday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told a press conference in an Ottawa suburb his party would be willing to support an “affordable” budget.
He said the budget should eliminate the industrial carbon tax and the capital gains tax, and lower taxes on energy and homebuilding.
While interim NDP leader Don Davies told CBC News his caucus will wait to see what the budget holds, he has not ruled out NDP MPs abstaining from the budget vote.
Davies said in an emailed statement Monday that “all options are on the table” and his party is focused on the needs of working Canadians.
“I think it’s clear that Canadians don’t want an election, but that outcome is entirely up to the prime minister whose job it is to secure majority support for his policies,” Davies said.
Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet has said his party is unlikely to support the budget unless its demands are met. They include increasing old-age security payments and boosting health transfers to the provinces.
Fred DeLorey, Conservative campaign manager in the 2021 election, told The Canadian Press that it’s the government’s responsibility to get the handful of opposition votes it needs to avoid an election.
“It’s not the opposition’s job to pass the budget. The government has to make the case and get the vote. And if they don’t, that’s on them,” he said.
“There could still be negotiations and discussions to change things, and they will need to find those votes if they want to survive.”
Champagne purchased a traditional pre-budget pair of dress shoes from Quebec manufacturer Boulet Boots on Monday. Champagne said that he chose the shoes as a way to symbolize the importance of investing in Canadian businesses.
— With files from Craig Lord and Anja Karadeglija.
6) Mark Carney’s first budget plots a sharp departure from past fiscal plans
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Craig Lord, November 2, 2025
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is getting ready to table its first budget this week — one that will be markedly different from budgets of the past.
“This one is important for a bunch of reasons that might actually be unique to this particular circumstance,” said Sahir Khan, vice-president of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa.
This budget is the Liberals’ first fiscal update in almost a year and the first summary of Carney’s agenda since the party released its spring election platform.
Since then, key Canadian industries have taken a sharp hit from the trade war with the United States. A weaker economy means lower revenues for government.
Add to that a handful of tax cuts and a substantial increase in defence and infrastructure spending, and Ottawa’s fiscal position appears to be under significant pressure.
Khan said budgets are important for reasons that go beyond the bottom line. They show Canadians how a government sets priorities for limited resources.
And the federal budget — like any proposal for new spending — automatically becomes the subject of a confidence vote once it’s tabled as legislation in the House of Commons.
That means this budget presents a politically perilous moment for the minority Liberal government — since losing the Commons vote could cause it to fall.
“It’s probably the biggest political event of the year … because in this case, it also outlines the government’s direction for the upcoming year and beyond,” Khan said.
“(There’s) a lot riding on this … and for Canadians, we’re kind of waiting to see now, how is this government going to address the anxiety we feel about a bunch of things that are really important to us and our families?”
At a press conference in an Ottawa suburb Sunday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he would be willing to support an “affordable” budget.
“Our hand is still extended, and there’s still two days for Mr. Carney and the Liberals to reverse their costly promise-breaking ways. Introduce an affordable budget,” Poilievre said.
He cited measures such as eliminating the industrial carbon tax and the capital gains tax and lowering taxes on energy and homebuilding.
Interim NDP Leader Don Davies said his party would wait to see what’s in the budget Tuesday before deciding how to vote.
“We want to see policies in this budget that respond to the very real struggles that working people are facing right now,” he told CBC News Network’s “Rosemary Barton Live.”
To pass the budget, the Liberals need to secure support from the opposition — or some opposition MPs will have to abstain from the budget vote.
Davies said Sunday NDP that MPs could abstain from voting.
When Poilievre was asked whether abstaining would be an option for Conservative MPs, he declined to answer, saying he couldn’t offer any more specifics until he sees the budget document.
The long-awaited budget is landing now because the Liberals opted not to table any kind of fiscal update around the spring election. Spring is traditionally the season for federal budgets since it aligns them with the start of Ottawa’s fiscal calendar.
But Carney’s government says fall budgets will be the norm going forward. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said last month a fall budget gives provinces a better sense of federal policy ahead of their own budget cycles, and gives builders time to plan better for the spring construction season.
The other major change is a new presentation of Ottawa’s annual deficit — the amount of money added to the government’s total debt in a given year.
While the Liberals say they’ll still present the government’s fiscal position with traditional metrics, this budget will inaugurate a new practice of dividing the budget into capital and operating streams — a practice followed in the United Kingdom.
Anything related to creating capital assets will be considered capital spending under the budget — that’s mostly infrastructure and homes, but also some non-physical assets like intellectual property. Capital spending includes the federal government’s own projects as well as spending that stimulates capital formation among provinces, industry or Indigenous communities.
Anything that’s not capital spending will be considered operational — that’s largely government salaries, transfers and program spending. These are the costs the Liberals are examining through a spending review exercise that’s looking to save 15 per cent across the board over the next three years.
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer Jason Jacques and some other economic observers have argued the federal government’s definition of capital is overly broad and would misclassify some operating spending as capital.
The federal government has vowed to balance the operating side of the budget in three years so that, after that point, any borrowing would go toward capital projects alone.
Carney has presented this change as part of a plan to “spend less” and “invest more.”
Khan said the change could help the government convince Canadians that it’s only borrowing for measures that boost the productive capacity of the economy.
Infrastructure spending can be scaled up or down based on needs in a given year, but operating costs like salaries and transfers to Canadians are harder to rein in. Borrowing to fund operating spending creates debt that is more likely to be passed on to future generations, Khan said.
All that capital spending and the pledge to meet current and future NATO defence spending commitments are likely to push Ottawa’s deficit higher in this and future years.
The fall economic statement tabled late last year — before U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war erupted — projected a deficit of $42.2 billion for this fiscal year. The IFSD predicts the deficit could now land between $75-90 billion this year, though estimates from some other analysts have put the number a little above or below that wide range.
The federal Conservatives are urging the Liberals to cap this year’s deficit at $42 billion and accuse the government of engaging in “reckless” spending. Champagne has repeatedly said in recent weeks that now is the time for “generational” investments to pivot Canada’s economy away from relying on the United States.
The size of the deficit itself isn’t something that affects Canadians in a meaningful way, Khan said. Rather, it’s the accumulation of deficits over the years and rising interest payments that should give governments pause.
If debt rises faster than Canada’s economy grows, Ottawa’s interest payments on that debt could start to crowd out spending on other services on which Canadians rely — health transfers to provinces or passport services, for example.
That’s why Canada’s debt-to-GDP ratio has traditionally been a key metric for fiscal hawks gauging the country’s creditworthiness.
Jacques raised the alarm in September when he projected Ottawa’s debt as a share of GDP would no longer be on a declining path. He expressed doubts about whether the Liberals had any fiscal anchors that would show prudent debt management.
Champagne and Carney have insisted they do have fiscal anchors. In addition to balancing the operating budget, Champagne has pledged that Ottawa’s deficit-to-GDP ratio will fall over the government’s planning horizon.
Khan said it’s up for debate whether Canada would risk its strong global credit rating if Tuesday’s budget fails to show a declining debt-to-GDP ratio. He said the real test of fiscal sustainability is not a short-term one — it’s measured over decades.
If Canada does drive its debt-to-GDP ratio higher in the near term, he said, that might not be the death knell for the government.
Khan said Carney’s Liberals face a key sustainability question in this and future budgets: will Ottawa’s plan grow the economy at a faster pace than government spending?
“As long as that wedge is getting bigger, and your economy is growing just even a little bit faster than your spending line, you’re going to borrow less every year … and eventually you’ll pay down that debt and you’ll be fiscally sustainable,” he said.
7) What the federal Liberals are pitching in their upcoming budget
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Canadian Press Staff, Nov. 1, 2025.
The federal government has started previewing items that will be included in the federal budget set to be introduced on Nov. 4.
Here is a running list of what has been announced by the Liberals ahead of budget day.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s office said the coming fiscal plan will allocate $77 million over the next four years to the Canada Revenue Agency to address a problem the Canadian Trucking Alliance has dubbed “Driver Inc.” Critics have warned that a tax loophole has led to the exploitation of workers by allowing transport companies to classify drivers as independent contractors instead of employees to save money on payroll taxes.
The Liberal government says the budget will launch a Foreign Credential Recognition Action Fund by directing $97 million, over five years from existing resources. It says the fund will help internationally trained workers get their skills recognized faster. The government also says the budget will invest $75 million over three years to expand the Union Training and Innovation Program to support union-led apprenticeship training in Red Seal trades.
Oct. 29
Champagne and Minister of Women and Gender Equality Rechie Valdez say the budget will include $660.5 million over five years, with $132.1 million a year after that, for the Department for Women and Gender Equality. The government says that funding will go toward supporting women’s participation in leadership roles, providing security for LGBTQ communities during Pride events and supporting crisis hotlines and gender-based violence research.
Oct. 27
Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu says the upcoming federal budget will include $75 million over the next three years to boost an apprenticeship training program focused on the building trades. The government says it also intends to work with provinces to speed up the recognition of foreign professional credentials through a $97 million fund, using money pulled from existing employment department resources.
Oct. 22
Prime Minister Mark Carney promises the fall budget will spur unseen levels of private sector investments. He says the coming budget will include a climate competitiveness strategy, a new immigration plan and an international talent-attraction strategy.
Oct. 20
The Liberal government says the budget will introduce Canada’s first-ever whole-of-government national anti-fraud strategy. The government says it will direct banks to put new policies and procedures in place to detect and prevent fraud. The government says it will work with banks and others to develop a voluntary Economic Abuse Code of Conduct and introduce legislation by next spring to create a Financial Crimes Agency.
Oct. 17
The Liberal government says it’s fulfilling a campaign promise in its upcoming budget with funding to hire 1,000 more Canada Border Services Agency officers. It’s expected to cost $617.7 million over five years.
Oct. 16
Carney says Ottawa plans to hire 1,000 more Royal Canadian Mounted Police personnel, including 150 staffers who will focus on money laundering, organized crime and online fraud. The government says it will spend $1.8 billion over four years to boost federal policing capacity across Canada to combat crime. Funding will also go to increasing the RCMP cadet recruitment allowance to $1,000 per week.
Oct. 10
Carney and Champagne hold a press conference to preview three programs in the upcoming federal budget. The Liberals say the Canada Revenue Agency will prepare pre-filled tax returns for more low-income people with simple tax situations to ensure they get access to benefit programs.
Carney announces the government will make the national school food program permanent with $216 million in annual funding.
Carney says his government is reviving the “Canada Strong pass” for the holiday season and next summer. That program, which was part of the Liberals’ election platform and was launched last summer, offers free admission to parks and museums and discounts for young adults travelling on Via Rail.