{"id":634111,"date":"2026-04-28T12:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/634111\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T12:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:43:08","slug":"carney-promises-good-news-in-spring-economic-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/634111\/","title":{"rendered":"Carney promises \u2018good news\u2019 in spring economic update"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Prime Minister Mark Carney said there would be \u201cgood news\u201d on the federal government\u2019s fiscal position in Tuesday’s spring update.Sean Kilpatrick\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney says the Liberals are \u201cgood fiscal managers\u201d \u2013 and he\u2019ll have the chance to prove it when the federal government tables its spring economic update Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The federal government typically tables mid-year updates between annual budgets to revise its economic and fiscal projections. These updates can include new spending and are sometimes referred to as \u201cmini-budgets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Liberals\u2019 fall budget \u2013 the first under Carney\u2019s leadership \u2013 projected a deficit of $78.3-billion for the last fiscal year, with deficits declining and averaging around $64-billion annually over the five-year horizon.<\/p>\n

The federal fiscal monitor for April 2025 to February 2026 shows the deficit came in at $25.5-billion over the first 11 months of the last fiscal year.<\/p>\n

Editorial: The Liberals\u2019 second chance for budget boldness<\/a><\/p>\n

March typically sees a large one-month jump in the deficit, though some analysts still expect the federal government will post a lower deficit than projected in Budget 2025.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Carney suggested there would be \u201cgood news\u201d on the federal government\u2019s fiscal position in the spring update.<\/p>\n

A reporter asked the Prime Minister why the deficit would come in lower than projected. \u201cBecause we\u2019re good fiscal managers,\u201d Carney replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe focus on the numbers. And we were determined to get spending down with a lot of very \u2026 difficult decisions. You can\u2019t do everything at the same time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Mark Carney looks for investment the Liberal way<\/a><\/p>\n

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has called on the Liberals to slash spending and get the deficit on track to balance. He calls the Liberals\u2019 approach to spending \u201ccredit card budgeting\u201d and argues it will cost Canadians through higher inflation and interest payments down the road.<\/p>\n

Poilievre did not suggest a timeline for balancing the budget when asked by reporters Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s figure out how badly Mark Carney messes up the books before we announce how long it will take for Conservatives to clean it up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister has justified deeper deficits by citing the need to build major projects, ramp up defence spending and transition Canada\u2019s economy away from reliance on the United States.<\/p>\n

On Monday, he announced the creation of a sovereign wealth fund<\/a> with an initial $25-billion capitalization to invest alongside the private sector in nation-building projects.<\/p>\n

What is a sovereign wealth fund and how does it work?<\/a><\/p>\n

Since the fall budget, the federal government also has unveiled new affordability measures \u2013 including a boost to the GST benefit for lower-income households and a pause on the federal fuel excise tax until Labour Day \u2013 that will add new expenses to the fiscal outlook.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the country’s first national sovereign wealth fund on Monday, pitching the new agency as a way for Canadians to invest in nation-building projects. He says the Canada Strong Fund will invest in major Canadian industrial projects in areas such as energy, infrastructure, mining, agriculture and technology.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

In a video statement released on Sunday, Finance Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Phillippe Champagne touted those efforts, saying \u201cbringing down everyday costs is at the heart\u201d of the fiscal plan.<\/p>\n

Many economists expect the federal government will receive additional revenues from the oil price shock tied to the war in Iran, though uncertainty over how long the Middle East conflict will last is sure to cloud Ottawa\u2019s forecasts.<\/p>\n

Champagne acknowledged in his statement that \u201cvolatility is omnipresent\u201d and said the government\u2019s plan is aimed at protecting economic sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Opinion: To make the Canada Strong Fund work, look to Quebec\u2019s example, not Norway\u2019s<\/a><\/p>\n

Carney pushed back Monday when a reporter suggested the government\u2019s revenues would be better because of higher inflation. He noted the annual rate of inflation has been within the Bank of Canada\u2019s target range of one to three per cent for the entirety of his time in office.<\/p>\n

Statistics Canada also has revised up past gross domestic product data since the fall, giving the federal government a better starting point for many of its fiscal guideposts.<\/p>\n

The Liberals had a minority mandate when they tabled their first budget in November and legislation enacting the spending plan only came into force in March, with a handful of amendments from opposition members of Parliament.<\/p>\n

After a Liberal sweep of three April by-elections, the party\u2019s new MPs were officially sworn into their seats Monday \u2013 meaning Carney now has a formal majority government and more power to get bills passed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney said there would be \u201cgood news\u201d on the federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-634111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634111","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=634111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}