Liberals aren't planning to table a budget this year, finance minister says
Last time government didn't table a budget was during the onset of the pandemic in 2020
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne says the Liberal government has a number of priorities to tackle before the House of Commons is scheduled to rise in June — but tabling a budget isn't one of them.
Prime Minister Mark Carney's cabinet met for the first time on Wednesday ahead of the House returning later this month.
Carney's government is staring down a number of significant challenges in the wake of last month's election, including the ongoing U.S. trade war. The prime minister has also committed to implementing a number of key campaign promises by the summer.
Champagne told reporters after Wednesday's cabinet meeting that his Number 1 priority is to pass legislation to implement a promised tax cut, which Carney has said will be in place by Canada Day. But the finance minister said the government won't be outlining its overall fiscal plan until later this year.
"Canadians have seen the priorities we have outlined during the campaign. Priorities are not going to be different," Champagne told reporters on Parliament Hill.
Champagne said the government is taking a "step-by-step" approach by ensuring the promised tax cut and throne speech are dealt with before the House rises for the summer.
The finance minister said the government will outline its fiscal spending in a fall economic statement — a sort of mini-budget the government typically provides each year.
But Champagne wouldn't offer a more specific timeline for that outlook other than to say it would be tabled in the "fall." The last fall economic statement was put forward in mid-December.
Champagne later told CBC News Network's Power & Politics that the fall economic statement would be "substantive," and that he didn't want to rush a projection on the federal finances.
"Hopefully by then there'll be less uncertainty that we need to factor into… I want to be straight with Canadians and give them the best possible picture that I can," he told host David Cochrane.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in a social media post on Wednesday that it was "unacceptable" that government wouldn't put forward a budget.
"The Liberal government is walking away from their responsibilities. After months of building expectations and promising serious leadership, Carney announced he will deliver nothing," Poilievre wrote in a post on X.
"Canadians were told that Mark Carney, the supposed serious economist, would bring competence and clarity. Instead, we're getting delays and dysfunction."
During last month’s federal election, one of Mark Carney's most common slogans was "a plan beats no plan." Conservatives wholeheartedly agree. That's why it is so unacceptable that, today, Carney confirmed that he, in fact, has no plan and the government will not table a budget.…
—@PierrePoilievreThe federal budget, which provides an update on the health of the nation's coffers and outlines the government's spending priorities, is typically tabled in April. But because the federal election took place that month, and because Parliament was prorogued prior to the launch of the election campaign in late March, no budget has been tabled this year.
The timing of the election doesn't necessarily prevent the government from crafting a budget. Former prime minister Stephen Harper's government tabled one in June 2011 despite that year's election taking place in early May. (The Conservatives had tabled a similar document in March before the campaign.)
The last time the government didn't release a budget was in 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even though the government won't put forward a budget this spring, MPs will still need to pass the main and supplementary estimates — part of the legislative process for asking Parliament for more money to cover initiatives that haven't already been funded, or that require additional funding.
Governments are required to table main estimates once a year and supplementary estimates three times throughout the year while the House is sitting. The main estimates are meant to be passed every March, but haven't yet been tabled this year because the House hasn't been sitting. The next deadline for the supplementary estimates to pass is June.
The House is set to return on Monday, May 26 and the throne speech will be read the following day.
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