Omg, babes, buckle up because Ottawa is like, totally in panic mode rn! Your fave Valley Girl News is here with all the tea on Canada’s latest budgeting drama—like, it’s giving austerity-core, but with designer suits.
So, Prime Minister Mark Carney (yes, that Mark Carney, the finance bro turned PM) just told his squad of cabinet ministers to, like, slash their spending in a huge way by the end of summer. Why? Because, duh, they promised billions in new spending and now they’re scrambling to figure out how to actually pay for it without maxing out Canada’s credit card.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne—who, btw, has the most extra name ever—sent these super serious letters to all the ministers basically saying: “Hey besties, time to cut your budgets by 7.5% starting April 2026. And oh yeah, make it 10% the next year and 15% the year after that.” Like, excuse me?!
He legit told them they must come up with “ambitious” ways to “spend less on the day-to-day running of government” and instead invest in making Canada’s economy stronger. Translation: fire people, cut services, but make it sound inspirational.
This all comes as they’re prepping for the super dramatic 2025 federal budget, which drops right after Parliament comes back in September. And let’s be real, this budget’s gonna be spicy.
Here’s the kicker: Carney just casually promised at last month’s NATO summit that Canada will drop up to $150 billion a year on defence in the next decade. Babe, that’s like, five percent of Canada’s entire economy! That’s way more than the Liberal platform even hinted at. Like, we’re talking DEFCON-1 levels of spending.
The Liberal Party already projected deficits of around $62 billion this year and $60 billion next year. But everybody knows those numbers are basically fantasy at this point, especially with these wild military pledges.
And get this—ministers who want new money now have to prove their projects match Carney’s fave policies and show they tried to shuffle money around first. No more just asking for cash like it’s an Amazon wishlist.
Champagne’s letter was basically a polite way of saying, “Cut programs unless they’re literally essential.” He even told ministers to axe anything that duplicates other federal or provincial stuff. Brutal.
Oh, and this is all happening right as Carney’s new squad is settling in. Michael Sabia (aka Canada’s budget daddy) is now the top civil servant, running the entire public service. And Marc-André Blanchard, Canada’s former UN ambassador, is Carney’s new chief of staff. Like, the power shuffle is real.
But not everyone’s sipping this Kool-Aid. David MacDonald, an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, warned these cuts are gonna hit hard. He said they’ll be some of the biggest in decades, and Canadians will totally notice—think slower services and longer wait times everywhere.
Meanwhile, union queen Sharon DeSousa from the Public Service Alliance of Canada clapped back, saying cuts won’t build a stronger economy and will just wreck programs people rely on. Preach, Sharon!
Even the C.D. Howe Institute—super serious think tank vibes—basically said there’s no easy way out. Former top bureaucrat Michael Wernick suggested, like, raising the federal sales tax to help cover the defence spending spree. Um, yeah, good luck selling that to voters.
Wernick also dragged politicians for being all “we want more military spending” but refusing to say where the money should come from. Classic.
So yeah, Canada’s heading into a messy budget season. Cuts are coming, but where they’ll land? That’s still TBD.
Stay tuned, babes—this drama is just getting started.
XOXO,
Valley Girl News
