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On the eve of presenting his first budget, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne suggested the hotly anticipated document will include measures that even the opposition parties will see worth supporting. “It’s an investment budget. It’s a generational shift. This is going to be a great moment for the nation,” he told reporters Monday. Leaning heavily into the metaphors, Champagne took the pre-budget tradition of buying a new pair of shoes to Boulet Boots, a family-owned manufacturer in Saint-Tite, Que., where he made his own pair of shoes with help from staff. Known for its cowboy boots, the factory also supplies footwear for the RCMP and Canada's Armed Forces. Champagne walked away with black Oxford-style dress shoes. “This has been made in Canada, by Canadians for Canadians and I think it sends a powerful message to the rest of the country and to the world that Canada is a nation of builders,” he said. Tuesday’s budget will be the government’s first fiscal update in almost a year and the first time Prime Minister Mark Carney has signed off an economic plan for the country since forming government during the spring election. In the months since, Canadian industries — including steel, aluminum and the auto sector — have been rocked by the trade war with the United States and the economy has sputtered. The stakes are high. Not only is Carney under pressure to right the slumping fiscal picture but he will also face a confidence vote. It’s still unclear if the minority government Liberals have drummed up the votes needed to survive a vote and avoid a Christmas election. “I think there’s something positive in the budget for all the political parties,” Champagne said in French, when asked about the politically risky situation the party finds itself in. The budget is expected to include more money for defence after Canada promised to meet NATO’s target of two per cent of GDP spending by March 31, affordable housing and relief for workers affected by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs while reining in other spending that ballooned under the Trudeau government. To that end, Carney has said he's planning to balance the budget for day-to-day spending within three years, while boosting investments that build capital. “People are looking for change. There won’t be any surprises” Champagne said. “People will see something in there for them.” Liberals shy votes The Liberals are three seats shy of a majority, meaning they will need a few opposition MPs to either support or abstain when the budget vote comes — sometime in the coming weeks. In an interview with CBC News on Sunday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre wouldn’t say whether his party will oppose the upcoming legislation. The Opposition leader said he needs to read the document before deciding. The Conservatives have a few key demands to the Liberals for the budget, like scrapping the industrial carbon tax and keeping the deficit below $42 billion. “I don’t have telepathic powers to tell you what’s in it,” Poilievre said on CBC's Rosemary Barton Live. “If it were to bring down the cost of living — an affordable budget for an affordable living is something that I support." The Bloc Québécois, and its 22 votes, has laid out what it calls non-negotiable demands that are likely a non-starter for a government that's promised to rein in spending. In exchange for its votes, the Bloc wants to see increased Old Age Security payouts, more generous health transfers to the provinces, interest-free loans for first-time homebuyers and more infrastructure spending for Quebec and elsewhere. The Quebec sovereignist party has said there are no plans to abstain. Historically, the Liberals have turned to the NDP but interim Leader Don Davies said he wants to see where the cuts are in the budget before deciding. “We have said that we want a budget that invests. Cutting good, family-sustaining jobs that exist in the public service at a time when we want to create jobs doesn’t seem right to us. But we’re going to see where the cuts are,” Davies said. He did not rule out a scenario in which some of the seven NDP MPs opt to vote neither for nor against the budget. “Abstentions are allowed,” he told Barton on Sunday. Off camera, sources tell CBC News both the Conservative and NDP caucuses are grappling with whether they want to be part of an effort to trigger an election by voting the budget down. One senior NDP source and two Conservative sources said last week some NDP MPs might abstain. What questions do you have about the upcoming federal budget? What would you like to see in it? Send an email to ask@cbc.ca. The move is being pitched as a face-saving measure for the NDP, which was decimated during the spring campaign and is in the midst of a leadership race, to stave off a costly election while being able to say they didn't prop up the Liberals. Carney signalled on Saturday that he’s prepared to fight an election over his budget should it come to that. “This is not a game," he said at the close of the APEC summit in South Korea. "I am 100 per cent confident that this budget is the right budget for this country at this moment."
