QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Budget 2025
November 25, 2025
My question is for Senator Moreau.
There’s a $94-billion difference in Budget 2025 between the capital investment estimates of the government and those of the Parliamentary Budget Officer. We need clear definitions so that parliamentarians and the public can hold the government to account in terms of its commitment to balance the budget. The Parliamentary Budget Officer is calling for the creation of an independent panel of experts to clarify the definition of capital expenditures —which I consider capital — to eliminate government bias or projections.
Does the government representative agree that the Minister of Finance’s commitment to balance operating expenditures would have more credibility if the government had fewer opportunities to fund public expenditures by going into debt?
I think that the statements by the Minister of Finance are extremely responsible and should be taken in a broad sense.
The government has made a very clear commitment to balance its operating expenditures and significantly increase investments in Canada’s infrastructure so that debt to GDP ratios steadily decline over the next few years.
I am sure that senators will have an opportunity to ask these kinds of questions during the budget review to come in the next few weeks. I’m certain, Senator Forest, that you’ll find the right time and place to ask these questions in great detail.
As for the commitments that the Parliamentary Budget Officer hopes to see, I cannot make commitments on the government’s behalf in that regard.
Yes, we do need to find the appropriate place.
The government made a formal promise to balance the operating budget by 2028-29. Notwithstanding that promise, the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates that $87 billion in new operating expenditures will go on the credit card over the next five years.
Does the government representative agree that fiscal discipline begins with clear commitments to control operating expenditures?
The government recognizes that the Parliamentary Budget Officer does very important work, but it has already indicated that it believes the investments that would be generated by the actions outlined in the budget will ensure that the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s more pessimistic prediction will not come to pass. The government believes that these investments will lead to private sector investment by other levels of government and that this predictability bodes well for the Canadian economy.
