QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Balanced Budget
June 5, 2025
Honourable senators, my question is for the government leader.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly promised to balance the operating budget within three years, distinguishing it from capital spending. The problem is this, government leader: While expenses can reasonably be categorized as operating capital, neither the Main Estimates nor the public accounts make any such distinction for revenue. This means the government can allocate revenue however it likes and claim that the operating budget is balanced. That’s not fiscal discipline, of course; that’s fiscal and accounting creativity.
Canadians elected this government to deliver real solutions, not reheated slogans. Leader, when will the government present an actual plan to balance the budget in full — not just the parts it chooses, but a fully balanced budget?
Thank you for your question. The government is taking a number of steps to improve the Canadian economy, and that will redound to the benefit of all Canadians including our balance sheets.
As the Prime Minister has said, the government will present a much more comprehensive, effective, pragmatic and ambitious budget in the fall. It’s important that this be done right, and that’s what the government is planning to do.
Government leader, in 2024, 75% of total revenue came from personal and corporate income taxes and, of course, the GST. There’s no objective way to split that between operating and capital budgets. I think most of us know that. This makes the promise to balance the operating budget little more than a fiscal mirage.
Of course, I remind everyone that Canadians elected Prime Minister Carney with great hope. Will the government commit to giving Canadians a credible, comprehensive plan to balance a full federal budget and show that it intends to get there, and soon?
The government has identified its plans for both presenting a comprehensive budget in the fall and reducing the growth of government, as well as many other measures in order to balance the operating budget. It stands by those commitments.
