Poilievre Calls on Carney to Cut Spending and Cap Deficit at $31 Billion Ahead of Economic Update

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre rises during question period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on April 15, 2026. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to cut government spending and cap the deficit at $31 billion, a level announced in former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s last fiscal update, ahead of the government’s release of its spring economic update.

Poilievre sent a letter to Carney on April 26 laying out the Conservatives’ demands for the government’s upcoming fiscal update on April 28. The Tory leader said that despite the Carney government’s promise to spend less, the federal deficit has doubled in less than a year.

“You promised to shrink the bureaucracy, but in your first 11 months as Prime Minister, it grew by 7.4 per cent,” Poilievre said in the letter. “Consultant spending is up too, and far from spending less, the overall cost of day-to-day operating spending is up 9.1 per cent in under a year.”

Carney’s first budget, Budget 2025 released last November, projected a record deficit outside the COVID era of $78.3 billion, along with an increasing debt-to-GDP ratio.

The Liberals have said the current economic and geopolitical context requires massive federal spending, while the Tories say high spending spurs inflation and hinders future generations.

There should be “no deficit,” Poilievre said in his letter, noting Ottawa would be on track to achieving a balanced budget if he were prime minister.

Poilievre is calling on Carney to cap the deficit for this fiscal year at the level Trudeau announced in his 2024 fall economic statement of $30.8 billion, and to present a plan to return to a balanced budget “in the medium term.”

To cut spending, the Tory leader is calling on the federal government to scrap its $90 billion Alto rail project as well as the $742 million gun buyback program.

He is also calling for the government to cut back on external consultants, federal bureaucracy, foreign aid, corporate welfare, taxpayer-funded handouts to “fake asylum claimants,” and tax havens. He said that removing these policies could reduce deficits, inflation, and taxes for Canadians.

“Let’s end Carney’s credit card budgeting, bring affordable government so Canadians have an affordable life. End the illusions. It’s time for results,” Poilievre said at an April 26 press conference announcing his party’s demands.

Path to Balanced Budget

A report last week by public policy think tank the C.D. Howe Institute called for a clear path back to balanced budgets in the government’s upcoming fiscal update.

The update should contain a “realistic assessment of economic and fiscal conditions” as well as targets to restrain spending and tax reforms that encourage consumption and investment, the report said.

The report also said that “fiscal excess has already undermined economic growth and living standards” and that unless further action is taken to reduce the burden of public debt, Canadians’ savings and investment will continue to be undermined.

The think tank called for the economic update to commit to lower spending in non-priority areas where it has “ballooned over the past decade,” and to outline a clear track for a balanced budget over four years, including “credible measures” to achieve it.

Former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page recently said the Liberals will be expected to show results in the fiscal update, also noting that he wants to see line items in the update explaining how moves to meet NATO spending targets and speed up nation-building projects are affecting the government’s outlook.

New Policies

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, in a video posted on social media on April 26, said the spring economic update is the government’s plan to keep “momentum,” after increasing investments and trade exports and after signing 20 trade and defence agreements with other countries over the last year, while “making life more affordable for Canadians today and for years to come.”

“Bringing down everyday costs is at the heart of that plan,” Champagne said.

“This is our moment to build in Canada, to invest in Canada, to choose Canada and one another. I look forward to sharing how we will do that with Canadians on April 28,” he added.

The fiscal update will also take into account several policy measures put in place since the budget was announced last fall, including a plan to increase the GST credit for lower-middle- and low-income Canadians, as well as a temporary pause to the federal fuel excise tax.

The federal fuel excise tax pause was the first policy announced since Carney’s government achieved a majority in Parliament after several floor-crossings followed by three byelection wins on April 13.

The fiscal update also comes amid economic uncertainty worsened by the war in Iran, which has caused trade disruptions, oil price increases, and inflation. It also comes ahead of the July review of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.

Matthew Horwood, Noé Chartier, Paul Rowan Brian, and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.