Prime Minister Mark Carney and his cabinet ministers fanned out across the country Friday to sell Canadians on their latest federal budget — while the Conservatives sought to portray the document as a costly spending binge.
Speaking at a news conference in Winnipeg alongside Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, Carney highlighted his government’s pledge to end homelessness in Canada within a decade.
“For decades, governments and communities have tried to address this crisis. Too often, these efforts have been inadequately resourced, poorly co-ordinated and not sustained,” Carney said.
“We are investing an unprecedented $30 billion in a co-ordinated national plan. We understand both how difficult this will be, but equally how imperative it is that we succeed.”
The budget sets aside $11.2 billion over four years and $17.8 billion over 10 years for the effort. The federal government says some 65,000 Canadians are currently homeless.
Carney and Kinew unveiled a new partnership tied to the budget to build about 2,000 units of transitional housing and to fund a new mental health and addictions centre in Winnipeg.
Kinew said Carney has put nation-building at the centre of his government and there is no greater nation-building project than “building up the people of Canada” by tackling homelessness.
“Full credit belongs to the prime minister for saying we want to build the housing to end homelessness in Canada,” Kinew said. “No one in a country as rich as Canada should ever be homeless.”
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne went to Montreal on Friday for an event hosted by the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations to promote the federal spending plan, which sets aside billions of dollars to stoke investment.
In his speech, Champagne said the homelessness initiative and the productivity “mega deduction” that lets businesses deduct new investments are the two budget measures that will have the greatest impact in ten years’ time.
Champagne has presented the budget, titled “Masters of our Destiny,” as an ambitious plan to help Canada gain a solid economic footing in an increasingly volatile world.
“It’s about being more resilient, more independent, stronger,” the finance minister told reporters Friday.
“When you’re stronger, whatever happens south of the border, whatever happens in the Middle East or elsewhere in the world, you’re just more resilient. That’s really what I wanted to [have] Canadians understand when we say ‘masters of our destiny.’ There’s something profound about that.”
Opposition leaders have argued the budget falls short, particularly when it comes to helping people struggling with the high cost of living.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre described it on Friday as a “costly credit-card budget” full of “wasteful spending” that will drive up national debt.
“When you put more money on the credit card, you pay more interest to the financial institutions,” Poilievre said. “The Liberals should have called their budget ‘Mastered by Debt.’”
Poilievre made the comments while speaking at a news conference at a local food bank that is facing supply shortages and a spike in demand.
Food banks across the country are under pressure as households grapple with the high cost of living.
“We’ve gone beyond a food crisis to a food emergency,” the Conservative leader said. “People cannot afford to eat. This is the inflation hell that people are living in after 11 years of Liberal government and it’s getting worse.”
The budget includes a pledge to renew a local food infrastructure fund. The fund would provide money to food banks and other aid organizations to both buy food and upgrade facilities, such as greenhouses, kitchens, and transportation equipment. It’s a $124 million investment over three years, starting in 2027.
The Conservatives and Liberals already have sent out fundraising notes to supporters with competing narratives about the new fiscal plan.
The Liberals said the budget will facilitate economic growth and make life more affordable for Canadians, while the Conservatives said the “out of control” spending will lead to higher taxes.
In question period in the House of Commons on Friday, Conservative finance critic Michael Chong accused the government of allowing interest costs on the national debt to “skyrocket.”
“It is the fastest growing expense in the government’s budget,” Chong said. “What is the government going to do if we face another crisis like we did in 2008 and 2020?”
Parliamentary Secretary Ryan Turnbull replied that the government has charted a course that remains within its fiscal guardrails.
“We’re balancing the operating budget one year ahead of schedule and sticking to our debt-to-GDP ratio declining path,” he said.
Unlike Carney’s first budget, which was tabled under a minority government, the Liberals now have a majority and can get their agenda passed without the support of other parties.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2026.
— with files from Maan Alhmidi in Brampton, Ont. and Morgan Lowrie in Montreal