Canada budget adds tens of billions to deficit as Carney spends to dampen Trump tariffs effect | The Guardian | Leyland Cecco:
5 November 5, 2025 - "Mark Carney ... [will] run a deficit tens of billions larger than initially forecast in his first-ever federal budget. The spending plan, titled 'Canada Strong' envisions significant new defence spending, a reduction of the country’s civil service and 'generational investments' ... that would reshape the nature of the country’s economy.....
"As part of its huge spending plan, the Canadian government is increasing defence spending by C$84bn (US$59bn) over five years to combat an 'increasingly dangerous and divided world'. Carney has previously pledged to meet Nato’s goal of spending 3.5% of gross domestic product on defense, but the spending document does little to indicate how close Canada is to meeting that target.
"The budget envisions a reduction to the federal workforce by 2028-29 that would bring the civil service to a size similar to what is was in 2021. The government plans changes to retirement rules – not firings – to achieve that goal.
"In last December’s fiscal update, the federal deficit was projected to be C$42.2bn in 2025-26. But the Liberal plan will run a deficit of C$78.3bn in 2025-26. The government says it will aim to reduce the federal deficit to C$56.6bn by 2029-30....
"Despite criticism from opposition parties that the budget goes both too far in its spending or not far enough, one Conservative lawmaker [Chris d'Entremont] announced he would join the Liberal caucus.... The floor crossing is a key win for Carney’s Liberals, who govern with a parliamentary minority. Until Tuesday, the party needed the support of three lawmakers from other parties to pass this budget and avoid an election. With d’Entremont now sitting with the Liberals, that figure drops to two.
"Parliament is expected to debate the budget for four days, before voting on the spending plan on 17 November."
Carney’s reckless spending budget unites a divided opposition | Western Standard | Christopher Oldcorn
November 6, 2025 - "The Carney government is projecting a deficit of $78.3 billion for this fiscal year. This figure is almost double the $42 billion ceiling the Conservatives had demanded and shatters the prime minister’s own campaign promises of fiscal restraint.... Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre slammed the budget as 'the most expensive in Canadian history,' accusing Carney of breaking every promise he made just seven months ago....
"A recent Nanos Research survey found that three-quarters of Canadians want the government to make spending cuts to manage the deficit. Furthermore, a majority would oppose having another federal election if this budget fails. Carney seems willing to ignore this clear message, having stated he is 'prepared to fight an election over the budget if necessary.'”
Carney’s 2025 “Canada Strong” federal budget: Austerity to fund rearmament, war and corporate profits | World Socialist Web Site | Pierre Lajeunesse
November 5, 2025 - "The 2025 federal budget that Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne delivered to parliament Tuesday ... lays out a program of rearmament and corporate enrichment to be paid for through the slashing of public sector jobs, the evisceration of public services, and other sweeping attacks on working people.... The Liberals aim to spend less on healthcare, housing, education, public services and social supports—so they can funnel tens of billions more into weapons procurement, corporate tax incentives, resource extraction infrastructure projects, and the expansion of Canada’s military-industrial complex....
"In June, Carney announced an immediate 17 percent increase in military spending to ensure Canada met NATO’s 2 percent of GDP military spending target in the current 2025-26 fiscal year. Now the government is positioning the country to reach NATO’s new spending target of 5 percent of GDP, which will require raising the defence budget more than threefold from what it was last year, to $150 billion per annum by 2035.....
"The budget explicitly recommits Canada to a lead role in the US-NATO-instigated war against Russia.... To this end, Ottawa is allocating an additional $2.7 billion over three years to fund Operation Reassurance, the Canadian Armed Forces’ largest overseas deployment, supporting NATO’s forward military presence on Russia’s borders through its battlegroup in Latvia. In parallel, the government is launching a new $1 billion Arctic Infrastructure Fund to build airports, deep-water ports and all-season road networks across the North—dual-use projects designed to facilitate civilian logistics and military force projection toward the Arctic frontier, where resource extraction and strategic conflict with Russia and other global powers are intensifying....
"At the same time, to pay for this massive rearmament the government has initiated a sweeping program of cuts and restructuring across the public sector. The most immediate and devastating measure is the planned elimination of 40,000 federal public service jobs by 2028. The government plans to use attrition and buyouts, but has already signaled that it will invoke the public sector 'workforce adjustment' clause to impose layoffs where voluntary measures fall short.... The goal is not to improve efficiency, but to shrink public services so that resources can be diverted to the military and corporate sector."
Read more: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/11/06/azih-n06.html
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