Overview
- Budget 2025 will be tabled on Nov. 4 as the first in a permanent move to fall budgets, with spring economic and fiscal updates to follow each year.
- A new Capital Budgeting Framework will separate day-to-day operating outlays from capital investment, which the government says will augment existing reporting while keeping Public Accounts compliant with public sector accounting standards.
- Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer Jason Jacques now pegs this year's deficit near $68.5–$70 billion and cautions that the fiscal trajectory may be unsustainable.
- The PBO backs the timing change but says Ottawa's broad definition of capital spending could overstate investment, offering a mixed review of the framework.
- Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne defended the changes before the House finance committee as opposition MPs questioned transparency, and he reiterated a target to balance the operating budget by 2028–29.