Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre rises during question period in Ottawa on Nov. 2, 2023. (Screenshot from ParlVu)
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on the Liberals to cap spending and cut bureaucracy as the spring 2026 fiscal update released last week projected that the federal debt will reach $1.63 trillion by 2031.
The government of Prime Minister Mark Carney tabled its first spring economic update on April 28, exactly a year after the Liberal Party’s April 28 electoral win in 2025. The update projected a $66.9 billion deficit for the just-completed 2025–26 fiscal year, which is more than $11 billion lower than the $78.3 billion shortfall forecasted in its Budget 2025 published last November.
The update also forecast a $1.4 trillion federal debt this fiscal year, increasing each year to reach $1.63 trillion by the end of the decade in fiscal year 2030–31.
Poilievre criticized the rising federal debt, saying the level by 2031 will be $1 trillion more than the federal debt when the Liberals took office in 2015.
“That means under the Liberal Plan—Trudeau, Carney Liberals—they will have added a trillion dollars to our national credit card,” Poilievre said at a May 3 press conference in Toronto.
The federal debt at the end of the 2014–15 fiscal year under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper was $612.3 billion, according to the annual financial report for that fiscal year.
Poilievre noted that $1 trillion in $100 bills is “1,500 times bigger” than the CN Tower, which is 553 metres (1,815 feet) tall.
The Tory leader said the debt the Liberal government has added to Canada’s economy equates to “more costs, more debt, more crime, more taxes, more bureaucracy, and more of the same.”
Meanwhile, he said the Conservatives have a “different approach” and would “cut waste and cap spending.” A Conservative government would bring in a “dollar-for-dollar law,” requiring every new dollar of spending to be matched with a dollar of savings, he said.
The Conservatives would also “end credit card budgeting by getting back to a balanced budget in the medium term,” doing so by cutting bureaucracy, corporate welfare, tax havens, government handouts to “phony refugees,” and foreign aid, Poilievre said.
He also said the Conservatives would lower taxes and approve projects such as pipelines, mines, roads, ports, homes, factories, and other “paycheque-creating projects” to restore Canada’s self-reliance.
“These steps will reverse the Liberal credit card budgeting, make Canada affordable at home, safe at home, strong at home,” Poilievre said.
Ahead of the release of the spring economic update, Poilievre sent a letter to Carney laying out the Conservatives’ demands for the fiscal update and calling for the deficit in 2026–27 to be capped at $31 billion. This was the deficit for that fiscal year projected by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 2024 Fall Economic Statement tabled in December 2024. Poilievre also called for Carney to outline a medium-term plan to balance the budget.
The Liberals have said the current economic and geopolitical context necessitates massive federal spending, while the Tories say high spending gives rise to inflation and hinders future generations.
Carney told reporters ahead of the April 28 update’s release that nearly half of the update’s measures were based on affordability. He said Canada had the strongest fiscal position in the G7 and that strength was being deployed “first and foremost for affordability for Canadian households.”
The update included $37.5 billion in net new spending over six years, starting in 2025–26, 45 percent of which the government said would be for measures that address housing shortages and the cost of living.
When introducing the update in the House of Commons, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Canada’s economy had been “resilient” over the last year, which he attributed to the Liberal government making investments, reducing taxes for businesses, and diversifying trade.
The update said Canada’s economy grew by 1.7 percent in 2025 and avoided a recession, but it noted that the outlook is “subject to heightened global uncertainty,” including ongoing trade tensions with the United States and geopolitical risks around the Iran war that have raised energy prices.
Meanwhile, Parliamentary Budget Officer Annette Ryan said the update lacks details on spending targets and specific objectives, as she testified before the House of Commons government operations committee on April 30.
She said that while the update mentioned the government’s cost-cutting measures, it was “fairly limited in terms of the detail it provided,” noting that it offered no estimates of savings in year one of its plan by department.