Carney’s fiscal plan would mean “a lot of cuts,” says Karina Gould

According to his longtime former Liberal cabinet minister Karina Gould, Mark Carney’s plan to balance the operating budget in the three years can only be achieved with “a lot of cuts”:

Steve Paikin, TVO: “Mark Carney has said three years - operational balance in three years. Doable?

Karina Gould: “No I don’t think it is. And I don’t think it is something that we should be telling Canadians that we are going to do, unless there is a lot of cuts that are coming. I mean, that’s the only way you would be able to achieve that.” (Video)

Mark Carney has repeatedly committed to balancing the operating budget within three years, including in his leadership platform. He has made this commitment despite the context of Trump’s tariff threats, which were first implemented by executive order on February 1 – well before his platform announcement.

“A Mark Carney-led government will balance the operating budget in three years” - Leadership Platform, Feb 19.

“Core to that is to reduce spending of the government to balance our operational spending over the course of the next three years. To be absolutely clear what that means in terms of operational spending, it is all the programs the programs the government runs, it is the transfers to provinces, which as you know, is health and education transfers, it’s transfers to individuals, it’s debt service, which as you know continues to increase. So we will balance that over three years.” - CBC News, Feb 16.

“My government will balance the spending budget within the first three years.” -Kelowna Campaign Event, Feb 12.

“My government’s fiscal policy will focus first on reigning in government spending... We will balance the operational budget within three years.” - CPAC, Feb 19.

Carney’s three-year timeline for balance significantly accelerates the current Liberal government’s plan.

He is making that commitment to reduce spending while also cutting the capital gains tax - a tax break that adds a $19 billion burden to the budget over five years and only benefit 0.13% of the wealthiest Canadians.

Those two changes combined will require Carney to make $43 billion in spending cuts by year three.