[Northern Light]

The Spring Economic Update is out..............I'm underwhelmed.

Table of contents | Spring Economic Update 2026

Table of contents — Part of Spring Economic Update 2026.

budget.canada.ca

The flagship item not already announced its a huge sum of money to incent young people to go into the trades and employers to participate in hiring/training.

That's fine, seriously, though I'm not sold that its the best use of dollars.

***

Other items of note.

- A new initiative shy on details on modernizing how airports are managed with an eye to cutting air travel costs.

- Beginning Jan 1st, 2027, the legislated deduction to fund CPP will drop from 9.9% to 9.5% as a result of the CPP's sustained surplus, the relief applies equally to employers and the employed and would result in annualized savings of $133 for ~70k per year worker.

- If you're paid every 2 weeks, thats $5.11 extra in your pay cheque.. (its a fine and reasonable move, but not exactly a game changer)

- Lots of ongoing vague promises of progress on internal trade barriers and the suggestion of aiming for deals with Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina et . al), India, and several south-east Asian nations including the Philippines.

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Not present:

- Nothing about clawing back OAS from people who don't need it and boosting the incomes of low-income seniors and families who do.

- Nothing clear or bold on transit or health infrastructure

- The debt strategy, which reads as more as a hope and a prayer than a strategy is really missing both detail and substance, but also the ambition to return to balance.

 

[nightstreak]

Seeing Carney not only allowing Doug Ford to trample all over Toronto and take over our airport and waterfront parks, but joining in with a grin, my enthusiasm for Carney started waning, but now I'm seeing that we might not have gotten Poilievre but we elected a Conservative government in a wooden horse.

Headlines like “A Canada for All” sound nice. As do statements like: “the government is protecting the essential social programs that give Canadians a fair chance to get ahead — child care, dental care, and pharmacare.”

But dig into the details and you learn national pharmacare is ending. There is no new money to create more child care spaces. Federal health-care spending is drastically being cut. Oh, and the government is looking at privatizing airports and ports — moves prime minister Stephen Harper didn’t even publicly contemplate.

Two years ago, prime minister Justin Trudeau announced with much fanfare the “first phase of a national pharmacare plan,” $1.5 billion over five years to cover a range of free contraception and life-saving diabetes medications. The plan — crafted under pressure from the NDP — was to study the initial roll out, and expand coverage to more drugs in the future. Trudeau said national pharmacare would strengthen the social safety net, and help Canadians get the care they needed.

Only British Columbia, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island and the Yukon signed deals before Trudeau left office. Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador who now want access to the program are finding Carney is dragging its feet. Although he said in September he would act “as quickly and as equitably as possible” to finalize deals, and approximately $600 million is left in the pot, Health Minister Marjorie Michel’s office spoke Friday only of “honouring existing pharmacare agreements.”

Without a line item in budget 2025 or this week’s economic update, Carney’s government isn’t just signalling it’s not putting more money into the program to expand it to more populous provinces, it’s saying to those 17 per cent of Canadians who benefit that they’ll be in the lurch past 2029. The program is ending.

The federal government is also slashing billions from health care — at a time when hospital emergency rooms are swamped, the population is aging, and mental health needs are too often left unmet.

The federal government won’t be renewing the $1.2 billion in annual transfers to the provinces that support mental health and addiction services, as well as home and community care, nor the $600 million in annual transfers for long-term care. It also looks like the $500 million annually set aside to increase Canadians access to expensive drugs for rare diseases won’t extend beyond next March.

Althia Raj: Mark Carney has forgotten who helped get him elected

Dig into the details of the prime minister's budget and you find cuts to social programs.

www.thestar.com

 

[picard102]

Seeing Carney not only allowing Doug Ford to trample all over Toronto and take over our airport and waterfront parks

What would you actually have Carney do, that wouldn't send the country into a constitutional crisis?

 

[urbanclient]

What would you actually have Carney do, that wouldn't send the country into a constitutional crisis?

Misinformation again. All airports are under federal jurisdiction, even if the airport in question isn't wholly owned by the federal government.

I've mentioned earlier that Transport Canada would've restricted heights of buildings in the Western Port Lands if Bombardier CS100s (A220-100s) were to fly from Billy Bishop.

"A 2014 report warned that an expanded flight path would limit buildings on the western edge of the Port Lands to a maximum of roughly 15 storeys. The towers currently planned for that precinct range from 19 to 46 storeys."

This is for small Bombardier CS100 jets, so not looking good for the Port Lands if [larger] A220s [-300s] need to land:
View attachment 733132
For the occasional go-around or landing from the east.

https://www.torontotoday.ca/local/politics-government/billy-bishop-airport-expansion-plans-ford-seize-land-toronto-12183671

"The Toronto Port Authority is a federal public authority that regulates navigation within the harbour and provides transportation, distribution and storage container services to businesses. Toronto Port Authority owns and operates the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport"

https://secure.toronto.ca/pa/decisionBody/71.do

"The jet proposal was cancelled in December 2015 after the newly elected Liberal federal government announced it would not renegotiate the operating agreement of the airport to allow jets."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Port_Authority

"The Minister is responsible for the development and regulation of aeronautics and the supervision of all matters connected with aeronautics and, in the discharge of those responsibilities."
Aeronautics Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. A-2)

"Not surprisingly, aeronautics is not listed as an enumerated power in either section 91 or 92 of an Act drafted in 1867 as powered flight was still decades in the future. However, section 91 (the federal powers section) does contains a basket clause which assigns to the federal government the power to make laws for the Peace, Order and Good Government of Canada regarding matters not assigned exclusively to the provinces by section 92. This residual power came to be known as the 'POGG Power' or simply 'POGG' "

https://mcmillan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Glenn-Grenier-Federal-Aeronautics-Power-2022-COPA-Primer-17Mar22.pdf

 

[zang]

What would you actually have Carney do, that wouldn't send the country into a constitutional crisis?

Why would saying "no" to airport expansion cause a constitutional crisis?

 

[urbanclient]

If the airport is in compliance with all regulations, there is no legitimate reason for Transport Canada to deny them.
So what other way do you think they have the power to stop this?

There is precedence for this:

"The jet proposal was cancelled in December 2015 after the newly elected Liberal federal government announced it would not renegotiate the operating agreement of the airport to allow jets."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Port_Authority

 

[picard102]

Why would saying "no" to airport expansion cause a constitutional crisis?

The post was replying to "take over our airport and waterfront parks". The Province is fully within their powers to do these both. So what lever would they use to stop expropriation? Disallowance?

 

[zang]

The post was replying to "take over our airport and waterfront parks". The Province is fully within their powers to do these both. So what lever would they use to stop expropriation? Disallowance?

No, but as airports are federally regulated simply tell the province expansion isn't allowed. It makes expropriation moot. Aside from that, the additional noise and pollution would potentially cause more problems for the designated Environmentally Sensitive Area that is Leslie Spit.

 

[ShonTron]

Seeing Carney not only allowing Doug Ford to trample all over Toronto and take over our airport and waterfront parks, but joining in with a grin, my enthusiasm for Carney started waning, but now I'm seeing that we might not have gotten Poilievre but we elected a Conservative government in a wooden horse.

Indeed, between Ford and Carney, I feel like we’re in a corporate bust out, despite rhetoric of “Protect Ontario,” “Canada Strong,” and “Elbows Up.”

 

[lenaitch]

No, but as airports are federally regulated simply tell the province expansion isn't allowed. It makes expropriation moot. Aside from that, the additional noise and pollution would potentially cause more problems for the designated Environmentally Sensitive Area that is Leslie Spit.

That would depend on the scope of the regulatory authority. Airports are regulated in terms of how they operate (safety, design, equipment, management, etc.) but I'm not sure there is regulatory limits on factors such as where they operate (unless safety related) or other social or political considerations. Having said that, the Canadian Aviation Regulations are very complex so it somebody wants to go at it, it's all online.

 

[narduch]

If Doug Ford were Prime Minister he would definitely meddle in provincial affairs.

 

[picard102]

No, but as airports are federally regulated simply tell the province expansion isn't allowed. It makes expropriation moot. Aside from that, the additional noise and pollution would potentially cause more problems for the designated Environmentally Sensitive Area that is Leslie Spit.

That doesn't stop the expropriation. It just means they have to wait for a more friendly federal government, and expropriating it now will save them time in the future.

 

[picard102]

If Doug Ford were Prime Minister he would definitely meddle in provincial affairs.

Almost certainly, which is a good reason to not set the standard that low now.

 

[zang]

That doesn't stop the expropriation. It just means they have to wait for a more friendly federal government, and expropriating it now will save them time in the future.

The likelihood of the federal government changing any time soon is pretty much null. The fact is the Liberals want this, because they're pretty much the Conservative Party for people who don't like Poilievre.

 

[lenaitch]

If Doug Ford were Prime Minister he would definitely meddle in provincial affairs.

The one advantage federal-provincial interactions has over provincial-municipal is the Constitution sets some federal-provincial guiderails. Federal involvement in provincial matters usually comes with a bag of money, which some provinces are more happy about than others.