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 next week.
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.
New Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne was asked by reporters in Ottawa Wednesday if a federal budget would be tabled before summer. Champagne said there will be an economic update in the fall.
The 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 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 supplementary estimates three times throughout the year while the House is sitting. The next deadline for the estimates is June.
The House is set to return on Monday and the throne speech will be read Tuesday.
