In his first pre-budget preview, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a series of affordability measures on Friday, making good on some spring campaign commitments ahead of the fall economic presentation. <\/p>\n
On Friday, at a recreation centre in his Ottawa riding, Carney said the government will make tax filing easier, protect the school food program, and lower costs for families travelling over the holidays.<\/p>\n
The event was the first, but won\u2019t be the last time the Liberals tease out tidbits from the budget before it\u2019s tabled, according to Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s going to be more good news, trust me,\u201d Champagne said. \u201cI want Canadians to be able to understand what we\u2019re doing\u2026 because on budget day, as you would know, there\u2019s a lot of measures, and this one, I thought was very relevant for people to know.\u201d <\/p>\n
Specifically, the prime minister — after years of the move being something Liberals have vowed to do — is starting automatic tax filing, for some.<\/p>\n
Starting in the 2026 tax year, the Canada Revenue Agency will be automatically filing taxes for up to 5.5 million low-income Canadians. The full scaling up of this system is expected to take until 2028.<\/p>\n
This move is being done to ensure these Canadians receive the federal benefits they qualify for, such as the Canada Child Benefit and the GST\/HST credit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation is that millions of lower income Canadians don\u2019t file their taxes, either because they don\u2019t have the resources to do so, or because they think that their income is too low for it to matter, and that means too often that the people who most need benefits often don\u2019t get them,\u201d Carney said.<\/p>\n
Pressed later on what took the government this long to start moving on this commitment \u2013 a similar plan was promised back in the 2023 budget \u2013 the secretary of state for the CRA Wayne Long didn\u2019t say. <\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, we can talk all day about why something didn\u2019t happen in 2023 or (budget 2024). But I know certainly moving forward in this budget (2025, 2026, 2027) we have ambitious goals.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a statement reacting to the government\u2019s announcement, Tax-Filer Empowerment Canada \u2013 a national association representing leader tax preparation and software firms \u2013 said the move misses the mark. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis means taxpayers will now subsidize tax-filing for people who already have free options,\u201d the organization said, also noting the strain CRA has been under in recent months. <\/p>\n
School food, park pass programs extending <\/p>\n
The federal government is also moving ahead with making the national school food program permanent. Providing meals for an estimated 400,000 children, Carney is committing to working with provinces, territories and Indigenous partners \u201cto expand the program into more schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prime minister said the Liberals will also be advancing the funding and legislation needed to cement the program as part of Canada\u2019s social safety net.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil today, this program was a pilot. It was temporary, with only three years of funding remaining, but the challenges that it addresses are essential. They\u2019re fundamental,\u201d Carney said.<\/p>\n
Both of these measures were promised by the Liberals during the 2025 federal election campaign.<\/p>\n
And, building on another electoral pledge, Carney said the federal government is renewing the \u201cCanada Strong Pass\u201d which lowers the cost for families to visit museums, historic sites, parks and travel.<\/p>\n
Carney said take-up for the program this summer saw visits rise at sites nationwide, calling it \u201ca big hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd since no one can possibly experience all that Canada has to offer in just a few short months, we\u2019re renewing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pass will be revived starting on Dec. 12, 2025, to Jan. 15, 2026, and then again next summer.<\/p>\n
This renewal will also allow students ages 18 to 24 travelling home for the holidays to claim a 25 per cent discount on Via Rail tickets.<\/p>\n
Jekyll and Hyde budget? <\/p>\n
The prime minister said these measures will be included in the Nov. 4 federal budget and will be considered \u201coperational\u201d rather than \u201ccapital\u201d expenditures \u2013 a new distinction that this government intends to make in its accounting.<\/p>\n
Anticipating more pre-budget announcements, CTV News political commentator Scott Reid said while it\u2019s good Carney is making more of an effort to talk \u201ckitchen table\u201d economics, as it is top of mind for many Canadians, he thinks \u201cit\u2019s going to be a fascinating challenge for the government to communicate it and have it land positively with the Canadian public,\u201d given his parallel talk about austerity. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a complicated and, in some ways, contradictory exercise when it comes to communicating this budget and its measures,\u201d Reid said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his first pre-budget preview, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a series of affordability measures on Friday, making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[712,43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-204417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}