Canada's budget aims to boost competitiveness with investments

Ottawa — Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne on Tuesday tabled Prime Minister Mark Carney's first federal budget, unveiling a wide-ranging plan of new investments, tax and accounting changes, and spending reductions aimed at boosting Canadian competitiveness, diversifying trade away from the United States, and addressing affordability pressures for households.

The budget creates a roughly 50 billion infrastructure fund to finance projects in housing, hospitals and transportation over coming years, a government official said, and signals further large capital commitments for defence, major projects and housing. The government also announced measures to change how capital spending is accounted for, separating day-to-day operational spending from long-term investments, and signalled plans to accelerate tax measures intended to spur private-sector investment and competition.

Champagne framed the budget as an investment-led strategy to reduce reliance on the U.S. market and strengthen domestic productive capacity. "We are moving from reliance to resilience, from uncertainty to prosperity," he said in remarks ahead of the budget.

To support business competitiveness, the...