Ottawa needs to tackle soaring deficit: MLA Hunter

Posted on November 27, 2025 by admin

By Trevor Busch
Westwind Weekly News
editor@tabertimes.com

Last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s minority Liberal government narrowly avoided being defeated on its signature 2025 budget, which is designed to bring “generational” change in the arena of nation building.

While the fallout from the 170-168 vote is now deep in analysis for political observers, most regular Canadians are probably breathing a sigh of relief they won’t be headed to the polls for a Christmas election.

Projecting an eye-watering $78 billion deficit for 2025-26, it also calls for some $141 billion in new spending over the next five years, designed to be partially offset by cuts and other savings.

“I’m not happy about the size of the debt or the deficit,” said Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter. “I think that that’s irresponsible for our children. So I would hope that – look, my thoughts with the federal government is that they have got to start thinking nationally. Think about programs and projects that are going to be able to help Canada be a shining beacon for the rest of the world. And right now, we’ve lost a lot of ground.”

Ottawa’s public service, considered to be bloated by many, will see a drop in 40,000 positions through cuts and efficiencies over the next several years.

Key to Carney’s economic agenda is the Major Projects Office, already up and running, which will direct $214 million over five years toward critical minerals and other marquee projects, as well as $51 billion over the next decade for local infrastructure like housing, roads, water/wastewater and health facilities.

“For the last 10 years, we’ve lost a lot of ground in world standing and we need to do better,” said Hunter. “So these national projects that Prime Minister Carney has been presenting, those are hopefully going to help us start thinking big again in Canada. So I’m hopeful about that. That’s one good thing that I think is happening. But I’m not happy about the deficit – I think that they need to tighten up their belts a bit more.”

One of the big ticket spending items is billions earmarked for increased defence spending as Canada begins to ease itself into a new global reality where a “wild west” mentality seems to increasingly hold sway. Efforts to undermine NATO, threats against our sovereignty from a long-term ally, ongoing war in Ukraine, a nuclear showdown with Iran and now a targeted U.S. military campaign against narco-smugglers in Venezuela prove today’s world is a grim shadow of the relative peace most of us grew up under.

With that in mind – and a seemingly unreliable ally south of the 49th parallel – the need to re-arm and expand Canada’s military capabilities has become a vastly higher priority for Canadians than it ever has been in the recent past. 

Taking all that into account, the 2025 budget earmarks a whopping $81.8 billion for defence over five years, with roughly $72 billion in new spending. Over $20 billion over five years will be used to recruit and retain Canadian Armed Forces members.

One of the holy grails for the Alberta government, there was also hints that through a mixture of regulations, technology and carbon capture and storage the oil and gas emissions cap “would no longer be required.”