Liberal Leader Mark Carney released his costed platform during the advance polling weekend and shortly after the leaders’ debates, promising $129 billion in new spending and no plan to balance the budget.
Carney said this platform is needed to respond to the emergency situation created by the U.S. administration’s tariffs, which he said is the “biggest crisis of our lifetimes.”
Billions of dollars are earmarked to build infrastructure across the country and to support those affected by the trade conflict.
Carney has also released a robust climate plan, though climate change has not been a key topic during the election campaign, and pledged to make Canada a leader on the world stage with a new foreign policy.
Focus on ‘Nation-Building’
In the context of the upended relationship with the United States, the Liberal platform has elements seeking to boost Canada’s economy by way of major infrastructure projects and the elimination of internal trade barriers.
Carney said he would keep the Impact Assessment Act in place, which is cited by the Conservatives as a key impediment to building major projects, but he has pledged to reduce red tape around project approval. He said he would create a “Major Federal Project Office” to render a decision on projects within two years instead of five, and create a mechanism to recognize project assessments conducted by provinces.
The Liberals’ platform says it intends to invest in “nation-building infrastructure on a scale not seen in generations.” The major projects noted include the Port of Churchill in Manitoba, hydrogen production in Edmonton, solar energy generation in Cowessess, Sask., and a high-speed rail line between Windsor, Ont., and Quebec City.
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The federal government already had involvement in most of these projects. Ottawa announced a $175 million investment over five years on March 21 to support pre-development activities at the Port of Churchill and maintenance of the Hudson Bay Railway. Ottawa provided $18.5 million to develop the $21 million Awasis solar project on the Cowessess First Nation reserve. High-speed rail was announced by Trudeau in the dying days of his mandate, with Ottawa investing an initial $3.9 billion for the development phase.
The Liberals have pledged to establish a “Nation-building Project Fund” to support these efforts, with $6.8 billion earmarked over the next four years.
Other potential investments in infrastructure projects include the replacement of the George Massey Tunnel in B.C., supporting Alberta to build a passenger rail link between Calgary and Edmonton, and investing in the Quebec City tramway.
Another measure aimed at boosting internal and external trade is the “Trade Diversification Corridors Fund.” This would represent a $5 billion investment over four years to invest in ports, railways, airports, and highways to facilitate the shipment of goods between provinces and with other countries.
Doubling the Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program from $5 billion to $10 billion is also listed as a measure to help advance nation-building infrastructure projects. This measure was announced on March 21, a week after Carney was sworn-in as prime minister.
Liberals also want to build an east-west electricity grid, but this specific measure is not costed. The purpose is to open new markets for large electricity producers in Quebec and Manitoba in order to “enhance connectivity to low-emissions electricity needed for industry and the broader economy to reach net-zero emissions.”
$129 Billion in New Spending
A Carney government would unleash the federal purse with billions in new spending. New measures over four years would total $129,231,900,000, according to the costed Liberal platform.
The largest spending would come during fiscal years 2025-2026 at over $35 billion. The following years would see nearly $33 billion, nearly $30 billion, and over $31 billion in new spending.
The higher spending in 2025-2026 can be attributed in part to measures to counter the impacts of U.S. tariffs.
The measures having the most impact on increased spending include Carney’s promise to lower the tax rate by 1 percent for the lowest income bracket. The measure would reduce federal revenues by nearly $22 billion over four years, according to the platform.
The cancellation of the capital gains tax increase will also cause a revenue shortfall of $12.5 billion over four years.
Other big ticket items include new spending in defence which would cost $18 billion over four years.
Carney’s plan to involve the federal government in home building also represents one of the largest new spending elements, with a projected budget of $11.8 billion over four years.
No Plan to Balance Budget
Similarly to his predecessor Justin Trudeau, Carney has no stated intention to balance the books. He is planning to run larger deficits than the Trudeau government had projected in its Fall Economic Statement (FES) in December 2024.
Carney said he would balance the operating budget by 2028 by separating what are deemed as government capital investments. Conservatives have charged this amounts to an “accounting trick.”
The FES projected deficits of $42.2 billion in fiscal 2025-2026, $31 billion in 2026-2027, $30.4 billion in 2027-2028, and $27.8 billion in 2028-2029.
For the same respective fiscal years, the costed Liberal platform projects deficits of $62.3 billion, $59.9 billion, $54.8 billion, and $47.8 billion. This would add nearly $225 billion to the federal debt in four years.
Carney’s platform also departs from the Trudeau government’s attempt to maintain the deficit below 1 percent of GDP as a fiscal anchor.
The Liberal leader was asked by reporters to comment on this direction on April 21.
“This is a fundamentally different approach” Carney said. “It’s an entirely new government, it’s a fundamentally different approach.” He said the previous government had grown spending at an annual rate of 9 percent while his would limit it to 2 percent.
“The second element that’s different—fundamentally different, that meets the moment—is that we are in a crisis, the worst crisis of our lifetimes,” Carney added.
He said this crisis is more serious than when former Prime Ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin faced a fiscal crisis and balanced the budget, given there’s a “reordering of our relationship with the United States and the global economy.”
“We need to build, we need to invest,” he said.
No Fuel Charge, Beefed-Up Climate Plan
Carney has been a strong advocate of policies to reach net-zero emissions, such as carbon taxes, but has not made this a core theme of his campaign. He has presented himself as a “pragmatist” seeking to build the strongest economy in the G7. He set the fuel charge rate to zero immediately after taking office, saying the consumer carbon tax had become “too divisive.”
The Liberal platform, however, suggests the climate change agenda would remain strong under Carney. It speaks of a “sustainable transition,” usually implying moving away from oil and gas to lower carbon-emitting forms of energy.
The platform says that “action now will be far less costly than the impacts we will face in the years to come.” This was similar messaging used by former Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault to justify the carbon tax, saying that paying the cost now will save on climate change-induced natural disasters later.
The platform warns about not losing “sight of the impact our choices will have on our children and grandchildren,” while still recognizing the value of conventional energy to make Canada an “energy superpower.”
But concretely, measures in the platform are not geared towards boosting conventional energy. The platform says Canadians industry has an “obligation” to reduce its emissions as fast as possible.
Carney said he would increase the burden on industry to compensate for the loss in emissions reductions created by setting the fuel charge rate to zero. His platform said carbon pricing for industry will be improved while making sure Canadian industry remains competitive.
A new climate measure Carney would introduce is the carbon border adjustment mechanism, a type of tariff on foreign goods high in carbon to help protect Canadian industries that are less competitive because of domestic carbon pricing. The Liberal platform projects the mechanism would bring in $100 million in revenues in fiscal 2027-2028 and $400 million in 2028-2029.
Other moves to build the low-carbon energy sector involves kickstarting the “clean energy supply chain” by investing in the critical minerals sector. This is backed by $350 million in new spending to accelerate minerals exploration and extraction, along with other tax credits.
The Liberals also want to expand the electric vehicle charging network by building thousands of new stations by 2027, with $76 million in spending over four yours, while also looking to reinstate the $5,000 EV subsidy.
‘Lead’ the World
Foreign policy is rarely a top election issue, but the impact of the Trump administration on Canada and the world has made it one. Liberals have focused on the deterioration of the relationship with the United States in their messaging and on Trump’s comments about wanting to make Canada the “51st state.”
Trump is “trying to break us so that America can own us,” Carney has often repeated. Carney, who was affiliated with international organizations like the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, argues that Trump is upending the international trade order and pulling back on America’s leadership role.
“As America retreats from the world, Canada will lead it,” Carney said on April 21.
Similarly, Trudeau had sought to tell the world that Canada was “back” after he won the 2015 election, saying some had worried Canada had “lost its compassionate and constructive voice in the world over the past 10 years.”
Trudeau multiplied the foreign trips but Canada’s standing in the world did not improve demonstrably. Pledges to participate in U.N. peace missions did not materialize and an attempt to gain a temporary seat on the U.N. Security Council also fell short as Canada was bested by Norway and Ireland.
Carney’s platform speaks highly of Canada’s contribution to the United Nations, saying that Canada will defend the ideals of democracy and human rights as America is “casting a shadow.”
Carney has pledged to “restore” Canada’s diplomatic presence abroad by producing a new foreign policy, something not done since 2005. The Liberals say they intend to increase diplomatic representation abroad to expand trade and “restore Canadian leadership.”
The Liberals’ foreign policy will also include providing international aid at a level of no less than $800 million annually. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said this is an area where he would make cuts, saying Canada should not fund foreign bureaucracies, “terrorists,” and “dictators.”
Trudeau had an international aid policy that was self-described as “feminist,” but this term is not used in Carney’s platform. There is still the stated intention, however, to support women and girls by funding sexual and reproductive health care abroad.
Carney also wants to increase funding to the LGBTQ2I International Assistance Program by $8 million over four years. The program, seeking to support LGBT individuals in developing countries, is currently financed with $10 million annually.
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
