The first budget of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal minority government has narrowly passed with support from Elizabeth May and several abstentions.
May said Carney’s commitment to the Paris climate targets, one he made in Parliament during question period on Monday, represented “new words” from the prime minister and had won her support.
“I think I’m doing the responsible thing,” May said, despite some reservations about the budget’s contents.
Nunavut NDP MP Lori Idlout abstained, as did fellow party member Gord Johns of Courtenay–Alberni. Conservative Matt Jeneroux, who has announced he is resigning from that party, also abstained.
Federal finance minister François-Philippe Champagne had proposed a budget that included significant investment in northern infrastructure, sweeping cuts to the public service and an increase in military spending.
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NWT Premier RJ Simpson had said the budget, in its draft form, contained “a lot of stuff in here that is going to help us out.”
More: Federal budget includes significant promises for the North
The budget promised to create an Arctic Infrastructure Fund that would invest $1 billion in the North over four years on major transportation projects such as airports, seaports, all-season roads and highways for both military and civilian use.
Champagne’s proposals also included a major federal assessment of northern healthcare with a view to addressing issues like the cost of medical travel.
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The finance minister said his defence spending commitments could, in part, be “a way for us to build infrastructure in the North that northern communities will welcome.”
The budget anticipates cuts to thousands of public service positions that a major union called “reckless.” Critics said the budget lacked meaningful advances on climate while removing some existing pledges, like half of a prior Liberal promise to plant two billion trees nationwide.
The Conservatives have said the budget’s projected deficit of $78.3 billion in the 2025-26 financial year, up from the $48.3 billion predicted for 2024-25 in last year’s fall economic statement, could contribute to inflation and is not sustainable.
Whereas the Liberals have portrayed their plans as a “generational” investment in Canada, Conservatives have toyed with that characterization by terming it a vote for “generational debt.”
Even with May’s vote, the budget was not guaranteed safe passage. The Liberals were reliant on either at least one more member of another party voting in favour, or two MPs from other parties abstaining.
In the event, there were four abstentions. Shannon Stubbs, the Conservative MP for Lakeland, was the fourth person not to vote (other than the speaker, who does not do so except to break a tie). Her absence was attributed by the party to a health issue.
Defeat for the Liberals would have triggered an election. All other Conservatives opposed the budget, as did the entirety of the Bloc Québécois caucus.
The NDP vote was split. Other than Idlout and Johns, the party’s few MPs voted no.
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Interim NDP leader Don Davies insisted his party had opposed the budget – even allowing for the two abstentions – but added he had not heard anyone say they wanted an election to take place.
“I talked to every single mayor. Nine mayors in my riding, three regional district chairs, 17 elected chief councillors. All of them were unanimous that they didn’t want the government to fall,” said Johns, defending his decision not to vote.
“We’re being the adults in the room, listening to our constituents, who said right now isn’t the time to have an election.”
Idlout said the budget had not done enough for Indigenous people and denied she had helped to prop up the Liberal government by abstaining.
