PM Carney of Canada says the government budget will be released in the fall

Just days after the finance minister announced that the new Liberal government would provide an economic update later in the year, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Sunday that the federal government would submit a budget in the fall.

Following his visit to the Vatican for Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration, Carney made the announcement a few days after Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne hinted that the new administration would not be presenting an annual budget anytime soon and would instead deliver an economic report later in the year.

“There is not much value in trying to rush through a budget in a very narrow window – three weeks – with a new cabinet,” Carney stated during a press conference.

Carney stated that it would be premature to create a budget before the June NATO summit and before further negotiations over their economic alliance with the United States. He added that the government is investigating ways to lower expenses and boost public sector productivity.

“Defense spending, the economic outlook, including the tariff relationship with the United States, and the (government) efficiency… all of those coming together, we will have a much more comprehensive, effective, ambitious, prudent budget in the fall,” said the president.

In a post on X late on Saturday, Champagne claimed that 70% of the tariffs imposed in retaliation against Americans were still in effect.

The post followed Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, who claimed that Carney “quietly dropped retaliatory tariffs to ‘nearly zero’ without telling anyone.”

Ahead of the G7 summit in Canada in June, Carney was one of several dignitaries who attended the Vatican on Sunday for the first mass of newly elected Pope Leo. He also met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and European Commission President Ursula von de Leyen.