By Erik Hertzberg
(Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to change when Canada releases major fiscal documents, moving the country’s federal budget to the fall on an ongoing basis.
On Monday, Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said the government would be “modernizing the budget cycle” by releasing key fiscal documents later in the calendar year.
He also offered up a broad definition of how the government plans to label capital investment expenditures, earmarking any spending or tax relief that “contributes to public or private sector capital formation” that ends up being held directly on a balance sheet.
Carney has promised to grow capital spending while balancing the operating budget — effectively day-to-day government expenses — in three years. His government said Monday it will still clearly label the overall deficit, which economists in a Bloomberg survey expect will rise to about $70 billion or more than 2% of gross domestic product this fiscal year.
“By moving to a fall budget cycle and introducing a new capital budgeting framework, we’re making better-timed and more transparent decisions,” Champagne said in prepared remarks.
Carney had already pushed back the timing of the budget to Nov. 4, but typically it’s released in the first half of the year. An April election and the ongoing trade dispute with US have been cited as reasons for the delay.
The government said the change will offer “greater predictability” and planning for organizations, firms and investors, and align better with the construction season to give housing builders and investors more lead time for their upcoming projects.
It is not changing the government’s fiscal year, which runs from April 1 through March 31. Instead, it framed the shift to budget timing as a way to provide more clarity on spending plans ahead of the next fiscal year, and noted that other countries including the UK also release fall budgets.
As for how Carney’s government plans to define capital investment, transfers to provinces or municipalities to invest in infrastructure or productive assets, capital-focused tax incentives, amortization of federal capital, and private sector research and development would all fit into this category.
Contracts for subsidies “designed to unlock incremental large-scale private capital investments” and “measures to grow the housing stock” would also be defined as capital spending.
In a document, the government pledged to preserve “the ability for users to compare information across different financial publications,” suggesting that deficit or surplus figures will also be presented as they were in previous years in addition to the capital investment lens.
The prime minister has argued the budget will feature both “austerity and investment,” though he’s acknowledged the shortfall will be “substantial.”
Carney campaigned on major public investments in infrastructure, housing and military, aimed at reducing dependency on the U.S. and boosting economic growth.
–With assistance from Brian Platt.
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Last modified: October 6, 2025