Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged “generational investments” in a pre-budget address, while also telling Canadians that transforming the economy will “take some sacrifices.”
Carney delivered the speech before a group of university students in Ottawa on Wednesday evening. Prior to the address, a source familiar with the speech spoke with CTV News and framed the rationale for delivering the address before a younger audience being that they are the generation “entering the workforce at a unique moment in our history.”
“It’s our country. It’s your future. We are going to give it back to you,” Carney told the audience.
Over the last few weeks, the prime minister has been previewing select spending and other measures that will be in the Nov. 4 budget, describing it as one of both “austerity” and “investment.”
While Wednesday’s address did not include any major new commitments, it did shed new light on key themes guiding the government’s economic plan, including diversifying trading partners, plans for immigration and to attract new talents and climate competitiveness.
Carney also repeated previous messaging about how he intends to “spend less in order to invest more.”
Pledge to double non-U.S. exports in next decade
Throughout his tenure as prime minister, Carney has travelled abroad to emphasize the need to diversify Canada’s trading markets and sought to reset fraught relations with countries like China and India in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.
During his speech, Carney pledged a goal for Canada to double non-U.S. exports in the next decade.
“This will generate $300 billion more in trade. That’s new orders for Canadian resources, technologies, and expertise,” Carney claimed.
As he has since the federal election campaign, Carney spoke on how Canada’s “relationship with the United States will never be the same as it was” and how the current “moment has revealed the limits to our economic independence.”
“To confront a more dynamic, competitive, and hostile world, we must chart a new course, drawing on our many strengths, relying on our values, and being inspired by our history,” Carney added.
New immigration plan coming
The pre-budget address also announced that the Carney government will unveil its new immigration plan in the federal budget, as well as a new talent attraction strategy recently teased by Industry Minister Melanie Joly in her new industrial strategy.
While no specific target numbers were unveiled on Wednesday, the previous Liberal government under former prime minister Justin Trudeau had already begun slashing immigration targets, by reducing new permanent resident targets to 395,000 in 2025, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.
In his mandate letter to his cabinet earlier this year, Carney had already reiterated his goals to return overall immigration levels to sustainable levels and attract talent from around the world.
New climate competitiveness strategy
The federal government’s already-touted climate competitiveness strategy was also highlighted in Wednesday’s speech.
While no specific details were provided, Carney did say it would be included in the upcoming budget, “with a focus on results over objectives.”
In recent weeks, the prime minister has talked about the importance of “climate competitiveness,” while touting his push to move major projects forward. Cabinet ministers, meanwhile, have been non-committal as to whether the federal government will maintain its 2030 and 2035 emissions reduction targets.
Transforming economy will ‘take some sacrifices’
The Liberal election platform pledged to eliminate $15 billion a year by 2028 to bring revenues in line with operational spending, and over the summer cabinet ministers were asked to find up to 15 per cent in savings in day-to-day operational spending over the next three years.
In his speech on Wednesday, Carney reiterated that pledge, despite also promising to protect programs like national childcare.
“Even with such efficiencies and better management, we will have to do less of some of the things we want to do, so we can do more of what we must do to build a bigger and better Canada,” he said.
He also emphasized how transforming the economy will require “difficult choices.”
“I will always be straight about the challenges we have to face and the choices that we must make,” Carney said. “To be clear, we won’t transform our economy easily or in a few months — it will take some sacrifices and it will take some time.”
The Liberals are three seats shy of a majority and will need the support of MPs from other parties to pass the upcoming budget, or the government will fall and Canadians will head back to the polls.
In an effort to find those votes, Carney has been talking to with opposition party leaders.
After meeting earlier this month with NDP interim leader Don Davies, Carney heard Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-François Blanchet’s budget demands on Wednesday morning, then met with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre later that afternoon.
With files from CTV News’ Spencer Van Dyk and Rachel Aiello