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National Observer
6 days ago
- Business
- National Observer
Carney won't reveal spending plans, enraging critics — but some call it savvy
The West Block of Parliament is a great place to hide. A labyrinth of hallways and alcoves, committee rooms and stairways, it's the architectural expression of Ottawa's sprawling bureaucracy. At the heart of the maze is the House of Commons, a cavernous room where parliament sits while the years-long renovation of their original seat in Centre Block, next door, is completed. Until then, West Block is where Question Period takes place – but even here, perhaps especially here, answers are hard to find. Canadians were reminded of that as Question Period resumed on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Carney in the hot seat for his debut performance. The viewing gallery was packed; prominent journalists, the mayor of Toronto, PEI's premier, senators and family members of parliamentarians all came to watch the show. The day's Big Question was why Mr. Carney won't release a federal budget before fall. By then it will have been over a year since the government released one, an unprecedented gap (outside of 2020, when Covid derailed the process). Interim Conservative leader Andrew Scheer and others in his party asked the budget question repeatedly. In lieu of an answer, Carney – perfectly at ease as he lobbed jokes and jabs across the aisle – pointed out that Pierre Polievre's 100-day plan announced during the election hadn't included a budget either. From there on, he and his finance minister, François-Philippe Champagne, took turns repeating the great news that they were delivering a tax cut and breaking down provincial trade barriers. Disappointing for those hoping for answers, but not surprising. Question Period is for sound bites and sick burns, not genuine replies. For those, you have to go outside. In this case, all the way to Rome – it was there, during his visit to greet the new Pope, that Mr. Carney gave reporters the closest thing he's given to an explanation for skipping the spring budget. 'There's not much value in trying to rush through a budget in a very narrow window — three weeks — with a new cabinet [and] effectively a new finance minister," he said. "We will have a much more comprehensive, effective, ambitious, prudent budget in the fall." He elaborated briefly this week, in an interview with Power and Politics on the afternoon of the Throne Speech. 'I'm not a fan of picking an arbitrary number and then figuring out how to spend up to it,' he told host David Cochrane, after describing a host of uncertainties looming over Canada's defence budget. 'That's one of the reasons we will have a fall budget, not a budget tomorrow.' These excuses rang hollow to NDP MP Heather McPherson. In light of the intense furor caused by the budget's delay, it's baffling why Carney invited such a storm. It didn't just dominate the first week of Question Period, it unleashed a predictable slew of withering news articles and op-eds. 'For him to constantly say that everyone is new — nobody's buying that,' McPherson told Canada's National Observer over the phone this week. 'This is literally [the Liberals'] fourth mandate, with many of the same caucus members, with almost the entirety of the financial department staff being the same.' The day after Carney's first Question Period, finance minister Champagne told Politico that the reason Liberals are waiting until fall is they want to have 'more clarity around defense, around the trade war that is happening now in the world,' referring to tariffs and the upcoming NATO meeting where Canada's defence budget is almost certain to rise dramatically. Champagne said the government is also waiting to get 'initial feedback from our initiatives on government efficiency.' McPherson didn't buy that either. 'For Mark Carney to say, 'we don't know what's going to happen with military spending' – well, you ran on a military spending plan. Is that not the military spending plan that you are now going to take to NATO?' Uncertainty is baked into the whole budgeting process, she said; it's why spring budgets are followed and adjusted by fall economic forecasts. 'There'll be changes in a lot of things. There's going to be changes next year. Do we not get a budget next year because there might be changes? That's not how budgets work, and he knows that.' Indeed, he does. A central irony to all this is that the most famous banker in Canadian history seems indifferent to the value of a timely budget. This begs a question no one asked in Question Period: Why do we need a budget now? Big, beautiful budgets According to Michael Wernick, the former Clerk of the Privy Council, deputy minister under three prime ministers, and one of the most experienced former bureaucrats in Canada, we don't. 'In practical or operational terms, the four-month delay really doesn't matter,' Wernick told Canada's National Observer in a phone interview. 'In days gone by, the budget was mostly a statement of tax measures,' he said. 'The practice of having a big, beautiful budget, chock full of just about everything the government wants to do in the coming year and hundreds of pages of implementation legislation covering everything from A to Z, is a fairly recent practice.' The day-to-day business of a government doesn't depend on a budget. Payments to civil servants, transfers to provinces, funding the various ministries and departments — all these costs go out more or less automatically. It's the new spending measures that require parliamentary approval. One example is the 1 per cent tax cut Carney has promised to Canadians in the lowest income bracket; that can only come into effect once parliament has voted for it. The same goes for increasing the defence budget, or deploying billions for new housing, and so on. Over the past two decades, Wernick explained, governments of both parties have tended to jam their entire year's goals into a single budget. 'So you've got these huge omnibus bills and a fight with parliament,' he said. 'But they're too big and they cover too many things and they're cramping parliament's ability to properly review them. The Conservatives criticize the Liberals for doing it. The Liberals criticized the Conservatives for doing it.' Those giant omnibus budget bills force parliament to either approve or reject everything at once. On top of that, rejecting a budget automatically brings down the government, forcing a brand new election – something no party, or Canadian, wants right now, regardless of how they feel about the budget. For that reason 'Breaking [the budget] up into pieces might actually lead to better scrutiny by parliament,' Wernick says. Rather than an all-or-nothing vote with the sword of a new election hanging over their decision, MPs of all parties can (for now) approve, reject or amend each spending measure on its own merits, one at a time. Not everyone agrees, of course. 'The history of accountability and democracy is really coterminous with control of the budgets over the executive branch,' says Ian Lee, an associate professor in the Spratt School of Business at Carleton University (and a onetime candidate for MP under Kim Campbell's Progressive Conservative banner). 'It's not the end of the world if a national government doesn't table its budget, but it reduces transparency; it reduces, to a small degree, confidence in the government and in the stability of that country.' 'It's about legitimacy,' agrees Christopher Ragan, founding director of the Max Bell School of Public Policy who currently teaches economics at McGill. 'I mean, if you really want a well-informed debate about spending, especially in the world of a minority government, we should probably know what the books look like. And we don't know what the books look like. The last time we saw a fiscal update was in December, and that was like a whole lifetime ago.' Uncertain times on the barbecue circuit December was before Trump's inauguration and the ensuing trade war; before Justin Trudeau stepped down; before it became clear that Canada's economic future would bear little resemblance to its recent past. That's another crucial aspect of a budget – by spelling out the state of a nation's finances, it forms the material basis for debate about how the government will spend taxpayer's dollars. But here, too, Michael Wernick feels a budget's importance is overstated. 'The Department of Finance puts out something called the fiscal monitor every month,' he points out. 'Nobody ever pays attention to it and writes articles about it, but they're obliged to put out quarterly financial statements. So every three months the department will put a snapshot out of where it is.' But what if MPs want more recent or granular information, especially given the tremendous rate of change? 'If parliament wants to hear from the minister of finance, it's a minority parliament; they just call him in front of the finance committee,' Wernick said. Still, in light of the intense furor caused by the budget's delay, it's baffling why Carney invited such a storm. It didn't just dominate the first week of Question Period, it unleashed a slew of withering news articles and op-eds that articulated valid concerns about Carney's lack of transparency, all of it entirely predictable. The work of crafting a budget is contained within the finance department — completing one doesn't hamper the rest of the government's ability to pursue Carney's ambitious agenda — so why not just release one before summer and avoid the bad press? 'The charitable interpretation is they say, 'Hey, we're busy, life is uncertain, it's too hard to do, so we're gonna do it later,'' says Christopher Ragan. 'But the thing that I fear is that what's going on in their heads is: 'We can just do this more easily without a budget. The budget is complicated, the budget is very visible, the budget invites all kinds of analysis and criticism, and why don't we just proceed as much as we can and we'll just pass these appropriations bills, which get way less scrutiny.' And that is a view that is fairly disrespectful of the whole concept of parliament.' Heather McPherson says she expects the budget to contain bad news — news the Liberals would rather avoid delivering before they fan out across the country to gladhand their constituents. 'I think the advantage for them is they don't want to have a bad budget that they have to go out on the barbecue scene with,' was Heather McPherson's take. 'They don't want to have to go to Canadians with a budget that's going to be a hard pill to swallow, and stand at the [Calgary] Stampede and have to go to Canadians across the country all summer long with a bad budget. So they're going to hide and they're going to pretend everything is still sunny ways.' 'I think his intent, his strategic objective, is to buy himself a little bit of time,' says Ian Lee. 'There's going to be a logjam this September, October, November in parliament because there's going to be so many bills tabled in Parliament to implement his agenda. And so this will buy them four or five months to figure out, you know, which gets priority?' Of all the people Canada's National Observer spoke to, Lee was among the most critical of Carney's decision to delay the budget; Lee has worked in several developing nations around the world over the course of his career, and he pointed out that one hallmark of those governments is a slipshod approach to crafting budgets. But even he acknowledged that 'if [Carney] comes up with a really good, transparent budget this fall, I don't think everyone's even going to remember that they kicked the problem down the road.' Michael Wernick, for his part, takes what Carney said in Rome, and what Champagne told Politico, at face value. 'They must have just calculated that with all of the chaos around Trump's tariffs, and the NATO summit coming in June, which could just blow a big hole in sorts of all future forecasting, then, the shelf life of a June budget would be days or weeks.' My query to the PMO also directed me to Carney's Rome statement. 'I think that would be your best bet for a concise quote from him,' a press secretary told me. In the absence of more elaborate communication from the PMO on all this, Canadians must rely on the speculation of outside experts. And for voters and government alike, that lack of transparency may prove to be a bigger problem than the lack of a budget – especially if it becomes the new story by fall.
CBC
27-02-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Ontario voters casting ballots as Doug Ford seeks 3rd straight majority win
Power & Politics sets up the Ontario election Started 25 minutes ago Live Host David Cochrane and guests outline what you need to know about the Ontario election and how this vote might affect the looming federal election. The latest Watch Power and Politics live in the player above as host David Cochrane breaks down the Ontario election campaign and what it might mean for the looming federal election Updates February 27 4 minutes ago Will the electorate show up? Lucas Powers How weather is influencing election day 25 minutes ago Duration 4:35 One question hanging over this election is about turnout. It's an unexpected, snap election and it's also February. The last time Ontario had a general election in February was 1883. There have been other winter elections in the province's history, but they are relatively uncommon, for obvious reasons. Readers abroad and elsewhere in Canada have expressed worries about mail-in ballots making it back in time, and some have lingering concerns about accessibility at polling stations given recent snowstorms. The Ontario election in 2022 saw the lowest turnout on record, when just over 44 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot. Recent provincial byelections have also seen pretty dismal turnout. Low turnout advantages incumbents and is generally perceived as a sign that the electorate is content with the state of affairs under a particular government or MPP. But it also means that a comparatively small portion of eligible voters are electing majority governments. 6 minutes ago We've got reporters at every party's HQ tonight Rhianna Schmunk It's Ontario election day. Tune into CBC for the latest results 6 hours ago Duration 1:19 Ontario is electing its 44th government on Thursday. For the latest results and in-depth analysis, join us on election night for special coverage hosted by Dwight Drummond starting at 8 p.m. ET. The CBC's Lorenda Reddekopp is at the blue-and-white PC base and Dale Manucdoc will be with the NDP. Lane Harrison is following the race from the Liberals' base and Farrah Merali is with the Greens. 20 minutes ago Lucas Powers So, what do Ford's opponents say about the election call? The NDP, Liberal and Green leaders all say Ford used the tariffs as a pretext to campaign on anything but his record on things like health care, housing and education. They also say Ford is trying to outrun the results of the RCMP's ongoing criminal investigation into his government's Greenbelt land swaps scandal (this probe did not stop some of the province's biggest police unions from endorsing Ford). Then, there's also possible fallout from a change in the federal government. Ontario has a long tradition of voting provincially for parties on the opposite side of the political spectrum from whoever holds power in Ottawa. 29 minutes ago Why Doug Ford called this election Lucas Powers If you did venture out into the snow or sleet today to cast a ballot, you may have wondered, 'why, exactly, are we doing this?' And you know what? Fair question. The answer depends on who you ask. Ford called this snap election nearly 16 months early. He said he needs a bigger mandate (read: more seats in the legislature) to weather possible U.S. tariffs. There are a few holes in that logic. One, Ford's PCs already had a commanding majority. They could pass any legislation they wanted, regardless of how the opposition felt about it. Two, Ford first started publicly musing about a possible early election last May, a full six months before Trump made his first tariff threat. Ford also argued that the province's tariff response will require spending tens of billions of dollars, and he can't do that without voters' approval. But Ford has rarely shied away from big spending promises in the past. Last September (again, two months before the tariff threat) he vowed to build a tunnel under Highway 401 through the GTA. That's a project that'd likely cost anywhere between $60 billion and $100 billion, according to experts. No renewed voter mandate required. 2 hours ago It's election day, Ontario. We've got you covered John Rieti Voters, it's here. We've made it to election day, and we've got an exciting night of coverage planned for you. Leave this story open. We'll be updating it until we know who wins and how the race was won. We've got live video in the player above, starting with Power & Politics from 5-5:30 p.m. ET. Our election special starts at 8 p.m. ET, and results (open this results page in another tab) will start rolling in when polls close at 9 p.m. And if you can, please get out there and vote.
CBC
20-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
'Bare minimum': Sask. Opposition slams province's plan for short spring sitting in face of U.S. tariffs
Saskatchewan's Opposition NDP has slammed the provincial government's plan for a shortened spring sitting. On Tuesday, the government announced the Saskatchewan Legislature would open on March 19, with the provincial budget to be presented that day. It will be one of the rare times in the province's recent history — the other being 2021 due to the COVID pandemic — that the government will not face two weeks of questions before presenting a budget. NDP Leader Carla Beck called it the "bare minimum" in the face of the looming threat of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. Beck and NDP House Leader Nicole Sarauer stressed they were not accusing the provincial government of breaking the rules, but said the move is not appropriate under the circumstances Saskatchewan is facing. "Not only are we not seeing an emergency session, we are seeing two and a half weeks less accountability at a time when when I think we need more," Beck said in a news conference on Tuesday. Tariff threat imminent Trump has announced plans for two waves of tariffs. The first would implement a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods and is slated to take effect on March 4. The second, scheduled for March 12, would see 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. Beck said that if the legislature were in session, the government would have the ability to quickly respond to those tariffs by passing legislation with unanimous consent. Instead, the legislature will not return until at least a week after the second round of tariffs is expected. "If there ever was an all-hands-on-deck moment, it's this," Beck said. Moe returns from trade trip Moe spent last week in Washington, D.C., as part of a joint-mission by Canadian premiers and the Council of the Federation. He met with American officials like Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. Moe also travelled to Mexico, visiting Guadalajara and Mexico City. On Wednesday, Moe defended his government's decision to not recall the legislature until March 19. "We'll have much time to talk to the leader of the Opposition and you know, the various critics that they have," Moe said. "I would suggest that they are not influential in the Trump administration and we need to take the time that we have now to engage with those that are." WATCH| Moe says he's working to change minds in Washington: Moe says he's working to change minds in Washington 8 days ago Duration 1:45 Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is in Washington this week. Before U.S. President Donald Trump announced steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada on Monday, Moe was on CBC's Power and Politics to talk about how he's warning people at the Capitol of the consequences of tariffs and working to change their minds. He says blanket tariffs will mean job losses on both sides of the border. Moe said his trip was meant to strengthen trade ties with both countries. The premier insisted now is not the time to focus on "how hard" Canada can stick it to the United States. "I would say that Canada and Saskatchewan will remain the largest trading partner of the United States long beyond and past this president's term," said Moe. Moe said the upcoming budget will deliver on his government's promise to deliver a better province. The NDP said the government is required to have at least 29 days of budget scrutiny. They don't expect the sitting will last beyond that.
CBC
12-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Sask. industries prepare for pain of U.S. steel, aluminum tariffs
Social Sharing Industries in Saskatchewan are bracing for the impact of the 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum announced by U.S. President Donald Trump this week. Shannon Friesen, the CEO of the Saskatchewan Construction Association, said she is keeping a close eye on the United States, with the tariffs scheduled to come into effect on March 12. The most recent news indicates the 25 per cent worldwide steel and aluminum tariffs could stack on top of the 25 per cent economy-wide tariffs Trump intends for Canada and Mexico on March 4, reaching 50 per cent on some items. Many companies in the province's construction sector are reliant on supply chains that flow through the United States, said Friesen. "Can we supply it from elsewhere? I think we can. And certainly that would be a focus, but that would take some time to sort that out. And you know, and in the immediate [future], there's concerns about cost escalations." Friesen said the construction industry is known to be resilient but a 25 per cent tariff could pose a challenge. She warned that rising costs could result in layoffs or even the cancellations of some projects. Construction is unlikely to be the only industry preparing for the impact. Regina is the home of one of 13 steel plants in the country. Evraz, the company operating that plant, has yet to respond to a request for an interview. In 2018, when similar tariffs were put in place by Trump during his first administration, the federal government contributed $40 million to assist the facility. An expert told CBC News earlier this week that although most of Canada's steel production is located in Ontario and the effects of the tariffs are likely to be felt the heaviest in that province, the knock-on effects could be severe. Mark Brown, president of metal fabricator Pro Metal Industries Ltd. in Regina, said U.S. tariffs are unlikely to directly affect his business, and he is trying to find a silver lining to the overall threat to the economy. "Nothing good can come with tariffs. It's an economic disruption on our supply chain and everything," he said. "But if I have to look at the positive, it creates us, at Pro Metal, and us, the consumers, to look internally. What do we have in Canada?" WATCH | Moe says he's working to change minds in Washington: Moe says he's working to change minds in Washington 7 hours ago Duration 1:45 Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is in Washington this week. Before U.S. President Donald Trump announced steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada on Monday, Moe was on CBC's Power and Politics to talk about how he's warning people at the Capitol of the consequences of tariffs and working to change their minds. He says blanket tariffs will mean job losses on both sides of the border. Brown said he tries to make sure he procures steel from inside Canada and encouraged more companies to do the same in order to broaden the domestic market. Jason Childs, a professor of economics at the University of Regina, said the steel and aluminum tariffs — and the threat of broader tariffs on all goods — should force Canada to reassess its reliance on the United States. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2024 Canada supplied about one-quarter of America's steel and iron imports and almost 60 per cent of its aluminum imports. Roughly 90 per cent of Canada's steel and aluminum exports go to American companies, according to data from Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform. Childs outlined a similar approach to Brown's — expand the domestic market — and added another suggestion: look to markets outside North America. "We've either got to figure out how to restore our trading relationship with the U.S. or we've got to move really fast, as fast as we possibly can, to find other outlets for our natural resources and maybe work a little harder at adding value to them before we sell them on into the world," said Childs. The economist said Canada has done little in the past decade to build the infrastructure necessary to make that expansion happen quickly and may pay the price now. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is in Washington, D.C., this week as part of a joint mission by Canadian premiers and the Council of the Federation. Moe is planning to meet with industry leaders and American officials. In a statement issued Tuesday, Moe said he will reiterate the message that tariffs "will hurt both the Canadian and American economies, driving up prices and making us less competitive globally." Moe has stopped short of endorsing retaliatory tariffs, while Official Opposition Leader Carla Beck has called for Ottawa to implement them immediately. WATCH | Carney says U.S. is violating CUSMA by imposing tariffs: Carney says U.S. is violating CUSMA by imposing tariffs 4 hours ago Duration 1:24 Asked whether Canada should retaliate against President Donald Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum, Liberal leadership contender Mark Carney said Canada has many cards to play, and if he leads the next government he will pursue the options 'that are best for Canada.' Regina-Qu'Appelle MP Andrew Scheer told CBC today that his heart goes out to the steel industry and the workers here in Saskatchewan. The Opposition House Leader emphasized that the Conservative Party of Canada believes the impending tariffs are unjustified. "We absolutely call on retaliatory tariffs and that any funds collected from tariffs on American steel and aluminum be used to support the workers whose jobs are going to be affected," he said. Childs said he does not believe a retaliatory tariff on steel or aluminum is likely to help Canada. "If we want to retaliate, if that's necessary for our national pride, fine. But know, it's going to cost a lot. It's going to hurt," said Childs.
CBC
11-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Moe says he's working to change minds in Washington
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is in Washington this week. Before U.S. President Donald Trump imposed steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada on Monday, Moe was on CBC's Power and Politics to talk about how he's warning people at the Capitol of the consequences of tariffs and working to change their minds. He says blanket tariffs will mean job losses on both sides of the border.
