{"id":213010,"date":"2025-10-14T19:10:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T19:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/213010\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T19:10:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T19:10:06","slug":"bloc-lays-out-18-budget-demands-listing-six-as-non-negotiable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/213010\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloc lays out 18 budget demands, listing six as non-negotiable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Bloc finance critic Jean-Denis Garon, pictured in 2022, outlined a list of the party’s budget demands, including $11.6-billion increase in federal health transfers to the provinces over five years.Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois has announced 18 demands ahead of the release of the minority Liberal government\u2019s federal budget, listing six as non-negotiable.<\/p>\n

Jean-Denis Garon, the party\u2019s finance critic, released the list Tuesday during a news conference on Parliament Hill.<\/p>\n

The six requests the Bloc says must be met include an $11.6-billion increase in federal health transfers to the provinces over five years; extending the 2022 decision to boost Old Age Security benefits by 10 per cent to people 75 and older to those aged 65 to 74; providing Quebec with $814-million tied to Ottawa\u2019s decision to end the federal fuel charge; launching new interest-free loans of as much as $20,000 for first-time homebuyers; increasing social housing transfers by $1.4-billion a year; and creating a new provincial transfer program for infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Mr. Garon told reporters the Bloc\u2019s support for the budget<\/a> will be \u201cdifficult to obtain\u201d based on where things stand at the moment.<\/p>\n

Budget will include automatic tax filing for low-income Canadians, Carney says<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bloc MP was asked if the government could fall over the budget, leading to another election campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur job is to represent the consensus in Quebec,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s up to the minority government to reach out. At this moment, I would say there\u2019s a lot of work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the cost of the Bloc\u2019s spending requests is mostly offset by other proposals, such as eliminating support for fossil fuels and cracking down on tax havens.<\/p>\n

In the April election<\/a>, the Liberals fell three seats short of the 172 needed to form a majority government. The Conservative Party finished second with 144 seats, followed by 22 for the Bloc, seven for the NDP and one for the Green Party.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney, pictured during Question Period last week, campaigned on a pledge to spend less on internal operations.Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

As a result, the Liberals need to convince at least one of the three largest opposition parties in the House to either vote with them or have a handful of MPs abstain in order to avoid defeat on votes that are deemed confidence matters, such as the budget.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters last month<\/a> that his first budget will include both investment and austerity. The Liberals campaigned on a pledge to spend less on internal operations in order to \u201cinvest more\u201d in areas such as infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

While a second election in less than a year is considered highly unlikely, it is not impossible.<\/p>\n

Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Joe Clark\u2019s minority government was sworn in in June, 1979, and fell six months later over an austerity budget.<\/p>\n

Editorial: The Liberals\u2019 fiscal fog clouds the danger of rising debt<\/a><\/p>\n

NDP Interim Leader Don Davies told reporters last week that his party will not support a budget \u201cthat takes an austerity approach.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mr. Davies had recently met with Mr. Carney and laid out the NDP\u2019s priorities. He said his party wants to see \u201csubstantial investment\u201d in jobs, housing and health care.<\/p>\n

The NDP is in the midst of a leadership race<\/a>. The next permanent leader will be announced at a convention on March 29, 2026.<\/p>\n

Mr. Davies said he gave Mr. Carney the NDP\u2019s \u201cbroad perspective\u201d but stressed that his party is not making specific budget demands. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t make any specific requests. We don\u2019t have a shopping list. We\u2019re not bargaining, either in public or privately. What we are doing as New Democrats is laying out our vision of what\u2019s required for our country going forward, very transparently,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has not released a formal list of budget demands but has commented generally on what his party would like to see.<\/p>\n

During a news conference on Parliament Hill Thursday, he said his party wants the government to bring down the size of the deficit, lower taxes and get the government \u201cout of the way\u201d to allow for the construction of new major projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will be sitting down with Mr. Carney with a clear plan for him to reverse course on his costly budget plans and instead go with an approach that brings stronger take-home pay, secure streets, solid borders in a self-reliant Canada,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I hope that he will take my ideas, because Canadians are ready for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Bloc finance critic Jean-Denis Garon, pictured in 2022, outlined a list of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,714,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-213010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-politics","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\/213010","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=213010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}