OTTAWA — Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne says the government will table the federal budget on Nov. 4.
The long-awaited spending plan will be the federal Liberals’ first under Prime Minister Mark Carney and comes as Ottawa’s budget watchdog says he’s worried about a lack of fiscal prudence.
It also will be Champagne’s first budget as finance minister. He announced the date during question period Tuesday.
He said the plan will offer a “generational investment” in Canada’s future.
“We’re going to present a great budget in this House on the fourth of November, Mr. Speaker,” he said.
“We’re going to build this country, Mr. Speaker, we’re going to protect our communities, we’re going to empower Canadians.”
Carney has billed the budget as one of both cost-cutting and investment as Ottawa looks to protect Canada’s economy from U.S. trade disruption.
The federal budget typically arrives in the spring but the Liberals delayed it until the fall.
The minority Liberal government will need support from at least one other party to pass the budget during the fall session of Parliament.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre slammed the prime minister’s decision to delay the spending plan until two-thirds of the fiscal year is over, “during which time he will have doubled the deficit, spent blindly and driven up inflation on Canadians who can’t afford food or homes.”
He said the Conservatives are demanding the government reverse its spending increases before the budget is released.
Carney has announced a series of big-ticket spending items since the spring election, including billions of dollars in new spending on defence and infrastructure.
The federal government also cut personal tax rates in the lowest tax bracket by a percentage point as of July and announced an expenditure review to trim day-to-day spending across the public service.
Many fiscal observers are expecting the federal deficit to balloon in the fall budget. Carney has pledged to balance the operating side of the budget within three years, even as capital spending is expected to grow.
Jason Jacques, the interim parliamentary budget officer, told a House of Commons committee on Tuesday that he wasn’t sure if the federal government still has its fiscal anchors.
“Which, of course, causes the people that I work with a considerable degree of concern at this point,” he told the standing committee on government operations and estimates.
Jacques cited the previous Liberal government’s fiscal anchors — keeping the annual deficit at one per cent of GDP and a declining debt-to-GDP ratio — but said it’s not clear whether the Carney regime would stick to those metrics.
He added the Liberals still haven’t said how capital and operating expenses will be divided in the upcoming budget.
“So at this point, it’s impossible for us and for you, as parliamentarians, to assess the likelihood or probability of the government hitting any fiscal target,” he said.
Jacques, a mainstay at the PBO’s office, was appointed two weeks ago to a six-month term after his predecessor Yves Giroux’s term expired without a permanent successor in place.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2025.
Craig Lord, The Canadian Press
