What We Know So Far About Measures in Next Federal Budget

Leading up to the introduction of the federal budget next month, which ministers have said will carry a “substantial” deficit and “generational investments,” Ottawa has started announcing some of the new measures it will contain.

So far there’s been a heavy focus on bolstering security, whether through allocating more funds to hire 2,000 additional law enforcement personnel or to beef up security programs.

This is taking place as the Liberal government is seeking to improve border security with the United States, amid complex trade negotiations underway with the Trump administration. U.S. President Donald Trump’s baseline tariff on Canada, while carrying a free-trade exemption on most goods, is purported to be tied to border security issues.

Ottawa’s security focus also falls within a larger stated goal of making communities safer by reforming the judicial system.

The announcements in that area have not come as a surprise, given they were part of the Liberal Party’s election platform. Those include hiring 1,000 new RCMP personnel and 1,000 new officers with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

The Liberal government has come under pressure from opposition MPs in recent weeks, who have asked for progress on the hiring of those officers, as the pledge was made during the spring election campaign.

“How many officers have been hired so far? No one on the government side is able to answer that question,” said Bloc Québécois MP Maxime Blanchette-Joncas in the House of Commons in mid-September.

Tory MP Jacob Mantle asked the government the same question later that month. Liberal MP Jacques Ramsay, who serves as parliamentary secretary to the minister of public safety, responded that the hiring process was underway.

A more precise answer was obtained on Sept. 25, when CBSA senior official Aaron McCrorie testified before the House public safety committee. McCrorie said 66 new personnel had been hired, but based on funding obtained from the 2024 Fall Economic Statement.

“Then you haven’t hired any of the 1,000 that have been promised. Is that correct?” asked Tory MP Frank Caputo.

“We’re in the process of developing our plan to hire them,” McCrorie replied.

New Officers

The government made its formal pledge to hire 1,000 new CBSA officers on Oct. 17. Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said $617.7 million will be allocated in the budget over five years to hire and train new border officers.

New measures to attract and retain personnel will also include increasing the trainee weekly allowance from $125 to $525, and allowing those with 25 years of service to retire with a full pension.

The Liberal Party costed platform for the election had not attached a specific dollar figure to hiring new border officers, but it allocated $490 million over four years under the line item “Secure our borders.”

Similarly for the RCMP, the campaign pledge included hiring 1,000 new personnel and increasing weekly pay for cadets. Police recruits currently earn $525 a week as they undergo six months of training in Regina, creating a burden for those with families or financial obligations.

The $1.8 billion in new funds for the RCMP over four years, to be introduced in the budget, will include raising the cadet allowance to $1,000. The union for RCMP officers, the National Police Federation, had called for an increase to $1,200, saying other police services have better compensation.

Ottawa said the rest of the funds will be dedicated to bolstering the RCMP’s federal policy capacity to tackle crimes including online fraud, money laundering, online child sexual exploitation, and organized crime. This is in line with a budget request from the RCMP union.

The Liberal election platform had pledged to dedicate more resources to counter foreign interference and transnational repression, but these threats were not mentioned in the context of this announcement.

The $1.8 billion figure announced is double what the Liberals had pledged to spend in the campaign on what they called “New RCMP operating investment.”

Along with proposing these new security expenditures, the Liberal government has introduced two bills aiming to reinforce border security. Bill C-2 was introduced in June but met with opposition in the House due to MPs’ concerns over breaches to privacy rights. A second iteration that left out the more contentious clauses was introduced as C-12 on Oct. 8.

A government bill to make communities safer by reforming the bail system is expected to be announced on Oct. 23.

The latest budget announcement on security came on Oct. 20, with Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne saying his government aims to launch a National Anti-Fraud Strategy.

This will entail making amendments to the Bank Act and establishing a Financial Crimes Agency. There was no funding attached to this announcement, with the Finance Department saying the new agency would be “leveraging investments in federal law enforcement capacity.”

The budget itself will not enact the new Financial Crimes Agency, as Ottawa plans to bring specific legislation for that in the spring of next year.

Other Measures

Aside from the area of security, Prime Minister Mark Carney has unveiled other measures from his upcoming budget. All of them are related to campaign pledges, with one going a bit further.

Ottawa had launched the Canada Strong Pass during the summer to make it free to visit national parks and museums, and provide discounts for travel by VIA Rail. Carney’s office said this led to increased visits, including 15 percent higher attendance in participating national museums. The Liberal costed platform had set aside $70 million for this measure.

Carney announced on Oct. 10 that the Canada Strong Pass will return for the holiday season and for summer 2026. No price tag was attached.

Other campaign pledges to be fulfilled in the upcoming budget include making the National School Food Program permanent. Initially announced in Budget 2024 with funding of $1 billion over five years, Carney aims to provide permanent funding of $216.6 million per year starting in fiscal 2029–30.

Budget 2025 will also propose to implement automatic tax filing for low-income Canadians.

The minority Liberals will need the support from one other party in the Commons, aside from the Greens, to pass their first budget in the new Parliament.

The Bloc Québécois issued a list of 18 budget demands last week, saying six of those are “unavoidable” in gaining their support. It includes requests for additional funding to provinces for housing, infrastructure, and health care.

The NDP said it won’t be able to support a budget with austerity measures and instead wants to see major expenditures to support workers and businesses amid economic uncertainty.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre sent a letter to Carney on Oct. 20 asking for tax cuts, and to keep the deficit under $42 billion. This figure is close to the latest official deficit projection of $42.2 billion for fiscal 2025–26 issued in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer has projected a $68.5 billion deficit in the next fiscal year.

Ottawa has not discussed the deficit figure. Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon previously said the deficit would be “substantial.”

Carney said he intends to bring in austerity measures to improve government efficiency while at the same time make a “generational investment in an ambitious future for our country.”