Lee Harding
May 29, 2025
The Carney government skipped the budget. But it didn’t skip the spending. And you’re on the hook.
What’s better?
To spend and save without a plan, or to do so with accurate information and a focused strategy? The federal government has chosen the former, and one thing is certain: Canadians are going to pay.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced on May 14 that the newly elected Carney government wouldn’t table a spring budget, opting instead to take things “step by step.” Parliament will sit until June 20, but aside from this week’s throne speech, delivered by King Charles III and outlining broad policy intentions, the only stated priority is to lower the first income tax bracket from 15 per cent to 14. That would slightly lower federal income taxes for most working Canadians by reducing the rate on the first $55,000 of income, saving up to about $550 a year.
That sounds good until you ask how it’s being paid for. Without a full budget, Canadians have no clear picture of the trade-offs or long-term costs.
Tabling a budget is how a government shows its plan. It outlines spending priorities, revenue projections and the fiscal path forward. Skipping this step is no small matter.
Canadians will repay this tax cut with interest, sacrificing tomorrow’s services for today’s soundbites. This approach lacks fiscal prudence; doing it without a budget only compounds the recklessness.
That recklessness isn’t just theoretical—it’s already taking shape. On May 27, the government released its main estimates outlining $486 billion in spending, nearly as much as last year. But without a comprehensive fiscal plan, there’s no clarity on how major campaign promises will be funded, what new taxes or cuts might be coming, or how sustainable this spending is. Notably absent are line items for the $3.5-billion Trade Diversification Corridors Fund and $150 million in new CBC funding.
Worse, a full budget won’t arrive until the fall. In the meantime, billions will be spent with no clear roadmap: just vague promises and political messaging. Canadians are being asked to trust a government that refuses to show its math.
Ottawa last failed to table a budget during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 (an unprecedented global crisis). The result? A surge in public debt we’re still paying for. There is no such emergency now, just political calculation.
Carney called proposed U.S. tariffs “the greatest crisis of our lifetimes.” Yet just days later, he appeared beside U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, smiling for cameras. The contrast between his rhetoric and behaviour is difficult to ignore.
Meanwhile, the government’s primary defence for delaying a full budget—that it lacked time to prepare—doesn’t hold up. The Harper government won a majority on May 2, 2011, and still tabled a budget that June. Carney’s team includes many Trudeau-era veterans, and the Department of Finance is staffed by seasoned public servants. The Liberals could deliver a budget. They choose not to.
Even when the Liberals do produce budgets, the results have been troubling. On Dec. 31, 2015, federal debt was $693.8 billion. By the end of 2024, it had reached $953.9 billion, a 37 per cent jump in just nine years. These debts may never be repaid.
A 2022 Fraser Institute study estimated that a 16-year-old Canadian will pay $29,663 in lifetime income taxes just to cover interest on the federal debt—money that won’t fund any services.
And now, while promising tax cuts, the government has quietly slashed carbon price rebates to consumers, from $11.67 billion to just $3.5 billion. More Canadians will lose out on affordability relief, while industrial carbon levies remain untouched. These trade-offs deserve scrutiny, but without a budget, they stay buried.
The government’s fiscal plan includes $4.2 billion in income tax cuts and a GST exemption on first-time home purchases, costing $383 million. But these measures are overshadowed by tens of billions in
borrowing.
Last year’s budget included $538 billion in spending, $40 billion of which came from debt. That deficit later swelled past $60 billion. This year’s plan is projected to worsen the fiscal outlook by another $46.8 billion, even after accounting for $20 billion in retaliatory tariff revenues.
Parliament must still approve additional spending through supplementary estimates. But without a full budget, MPs are flying blind, asked to greenlight billions without context or accountability.
What would be refreshing, though unlikely, is for non-Liberal MPs to approve only measures that strengthen the economy, military and policing, while rejecting everything else until a full financial plan is presented.
Governments should manage national finances like any household or business: with discipline, transparency and a clear plan. Anything less isn’t leadership. It’s evasion.
troymedia.com
May 29, 2025
The Carney government skipped the budget. But it didn’t skip the spending. And you’re on the hook.
What’s better?
To spend and save without a plan, or to do so with accurate information and a focused strategy? The federal government has chosen the former, and one thing is certain: Canadians are going to pay.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced on May 14 that the newly elected Carney government wouldn’t table a spring budget, opting instead to take things “step by step.” Parliament will sit until June 20, but aside from this week’s throne speech, delivered by King Charles III and outlining broad policy intentions, the only stated priority is to lower the first income tax bracket from 15 per cent to 14. That would slightly lower federal income taxes for most working Canadians by reducing the rate on the first $55,000 of income, saving up to about $550 a year.
That sounds good until you ask how it’s being paid for. Without a full budget, Canadians have no clear picture of the trade-offs or long-term costs.
Tabling a budget is how a government shows its plan. It outlines spending priorities, revenue projections and the fiscal path forward. Skipping this step is no small matter.
Canadians will repay this tax cut with interest, sacrificing tomorrow’s services for today’s soundbites. This approach lacks fiscal prudence; doing it without a budget only compounds the recklessness.
That recklessness isn’t just theoretical—it’s already taking shape. On May 27, the government released its main estimates outlining $486 billion in spending, nearly as much as last year. But without a comprehensive fiscal plan, there’s no clarity on how major campaign promises will be funded, what new taxes or cuts might be coming, or how sustainable this spending is. Notably absent are line items for the $3.5-billion Trade Diversification Corridors Fund and $150 million in new CBC funding.
Worse, a full budget won’t arrive until the fall. In the meantime, billions will be spent with no clear roadmap: just vague promises and political messaging. Canadians are being asked to trust a government that refuses to show its math.
Ottawa last failed to table a budget during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 (an unprecedented global crisis). The result? A surge in public debt we’re still paying for. There is no such emergency now, just political calculation.
Carney called proposed U.S. tariffs “the greatest crisis of our lifetimes.” Yet just days later, he appeared beside U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, smiling for cameras. The contrast between his rhetoric and behaviour is difficult to ignore.
Meanwhile, the government’s primary defence for delaying a full budget—that it lacked time to prepare—doesn’t hold up. The Harper government won a majority on May 2, 2011, and still tabled a budget that June. Carney’s team includes many Trudeau-era veterans, and the Department of Finance is staffed by seasoned public servants. The Liberals could deliver a budget. They choose not to.
Even when the Liberals do produce budgets, the results have been troubling. On Dec. 31, 2015, federal debt was $693.8 billion. By the end of 2024, it had reached $953.9 billion, a 37 per cent jump in just nine years. These debts may never be repaid.
A 2022 Fraser Institute study estimated that a 16-year-old Canadian will pay $29,663 in lifetime income taxes just to cover interest on the federal debt—money that won’t fund any services.
And now, while promising tax cuts, the government has quietly slashed carbon price rebates to consumers, from $11.67 billion to just $3.5 billion. More Canadians will lose out on affordability relief, while industrial carbon levies remain untouched. These trade-offs deserve scrutiny, but without a budget, they stay buried.
The government’s fiscal plan includes $4.2 billion in income tax cuts and a GST exemption on first-time home purchases, costing $383 million. But these measures are overshadowed by tens of billions in
borrowing.
Last year’s budget included $538 billion in spending, $40 billion of which came from debt. That deficit later swelled past $60 billion. This year’s plan is projected to worsen the fiscal outlook by another $46.8 billion, even after accounting for $20 billion in retaliatory tariff revenues.
Parliament must still approve additional spending through supplementary estimates. But without a full budget, MPs are flying blind, asked to greenlight billions without context or accountability.
What would be refreshing, though unlikely, is for non-Liberal MPs to approve only measures that strengthen the economy, military and policing, while rejecting everything else until a full financial plan is presented.
Governments should manage national finances like any household or business: with discipline, transparency and a clear plan. Anything less isn’t leadership. It’s evasion.
Canadians to pay for Carney’s budget delay
Lee Harding • No budget. No plan. But plenty of spending
troymedia.com
