Carney cleans up a Bubbly mess from his cabinet

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Cabinet ministers sitting around the table in Ottawa this week should expect an earful from Prime Minister Mark Carney. Stop freelancing, stay on message, and don’t contradict the boss is what they will likely hear.

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After some generally positive reviews of his cabinet picks, along with some warnings from the likes of myself, Warren Kinsella and the folks at National Post, it was Carney’s own team that brought the bad headlines.

Steven Guilbeault, followed by Dominic LeBlanc, said no to future oil pipelines the day after Carney had said in an interview he was open to them. Anita Anand, just sworn in as foreign affairs minister sounded like she was speaking for Hamas and not Canada. And then there was Housing Minister Gregor Robertson saying housing prices didn’t need to come down.

The one that really caused headaches for PM Carney though was Franky Bubbles, his finance minister who is more formally known as François-Philippe Champagne. Out of nowhere, Champagne announced that there would be no budget this year.

“The first action being taken by the government is to bring in a tax cut,” Bubbles spilled while speaking to reporters.

“The second thing we will do is … outline the government’s priorities for the next Parliament, and then there will be an economic update in the fall. So the sequence is very clear and very logical.”

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Pressed time and again on whether there would be a budget, Champagne stuck to his guns: No budget this year, just a fall economic statement – in the fall. There is so much that is wrong with this, including that Carney campaigned by repeatedly saying, “A plan beats no plan,” and what is a budget if not a fiscal plan.

Parliament hasn’t sat since December when the 2024 fall economic statement was released on the same day Chrystia Freeland resigned as finance minister. Since then, we’ve had a PM resign, a trade war started, a leadership race for the governing party and an election.

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That election was partly decided on the idea that Carney, thanks to his financial background was the best person to lead Canada and guide the economy. Going two years without a budget at this time would send all the wrong messages.

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Fitch rating service recently warned that the new government “has promised considerable fiscal loosening that would exacerbate already expanding fiscal deficits.” The rating service went on to warn this could hurt our credit rating in the future.

“Canada’s credit strengths offer significant headroom to weather a fiscal or economic shock, but increased structural deficits would pressure its credit profile,” Fitch said.

Not presenting a budget, a plan and a snapshot of the country’s finances.

After several days of letting the comments from Bubbles spill over, Carney stepped forward to put a cork in the idea.

“There will be a budget in the fall,” the PM told reporters in Rome where he was attending Pope Leo XIV’s Inaugural Mass.

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“The speech from the throne is on the 27th, as people know, the House is due to rise under the House’s rules by the 20th of June. So it’s really three weeks.”

The timing claim holds no water though and it never has. The government could table a budget before the House rises for the summer; they are simply choosing not to.

In answer to another reporter’s question, though, Carney gave an answer and an explanation that actually makes sense for delaying the budget until the fall.

Carney noted a NATO summit taking place June 23-24 — just days after the House rises — will have a potentially significant impact on the budget. He spoke of the ongoing uncertainty with the Americans and hope for some clarity in coming weeks. Finally, he said, the government wants to find efficiencies with government operations and the public sector.

“So, defence spending, the economic outlook, including the tariff relationship with the United States, and the efficiency. All of those coming together, we will have a much more comprehensive, effective, ambitious, prudent budget in the fall,” he said.

That’s not an argument we’ve heard from the Liberals until Carney stepped forward to clean up the mess Champagne made. At the cabinet meeting this week, Carney will likely use Bubbles as an example of the mess he doesn’t want to be cleaning up in the future.

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