Middle-class tax cut: Carney signs order to prioritize promise

Prime Minister Mark Carney signed a symbolic order signalling his government will prioritize passing his promised middle-class tax cut, following the first in-person meeting of his cabinet on Parliament Hill Wednesday.

Surrounded by his cabinet, Carney signed a note of instruction directing his ministers to prepare the legislation to be tabled first thing when Parliament returns later this month.

“We are acting today on that, so that by July 1, as promised, that middle-class tax cut — that will reduce taxes for the 22 million Canadians who pay federal income taxes — that tax cut will take into effect,” Carney said, before signing the document.

Carney has promised to lower the personal income tax rate for some Canadians by one per cent, which he says will save some families up to $840 a year.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne called the move “very significant,” and said it “sends a very strong and clear message to Canadians,” that it’s Carney’s government’s “first order of business.”

Carney said Tuesday that Parliament will have to approve the tax cut, and that his government, which is a couple seats shy of a majority, will have to “find two extra votes in order to get that.”

Champagne said the Liberals will introduce ways and means motions to table the tax-cut legislation, and that he expects the opposition parties to support to legislation.

New cabinet ‘really excited to get going’

Heading into their first cabinet meeting, the new ministers and secretaries of state in cabinet said they’re looking forward to getting to work.

Carney’s new two-tiered cabinet was sworn in on Tuesday, made up of 28 core ministers, and 10 secretaries of state. While he kept several more experienced ministers in more prominent portfolios, Carney also brought in 24 new faces.

As the rookies made their way in to the cabinet room on Parliament Hill Wednesday morning, several expressed optimism about the path ahead.

“I think we’re going to see our government run like a corporation, which I think is long overdue,” said New Brunswick’s Wayne Long, who was sworn in as secretary of state for the Canada Revenue Agency and financial institutions on Tuesday.

“I‘m always going to represent my constituents and speak freely,” Long, who was first elected in 2015, pledged.

“I also recognize that cabinet is a different level of confidence and confidentiality and teamwork,” he added. “So, looking forward to sitting down with our cabinet colleagues and getting great work done on behalf of Canadians.”

Long was one of the more vocal opponents of Carney’s predecessor, former prime minister Justin Trudeau. Long, who initially said he wouldn’t run for re-election under Trudeau’s leadership, had pushed for the longtime Liberal leader to step down for the good of the party.

When asked by reporters on his way into Wednesday’s cabinet meeting whether that opposition to Trudeau is what got him a seat on Carney’s front bench, Long said: “Not at all.”

“I think the prime minister is well beyond doing favours for people,” he said. “I think he picks people who are qualified and people that can contribute and move our country forward. I‘m really excited to get going.”

Rookie from British Columbia Jill McKnight — who was sworn-in on Tuesday as minister of veterans affairs and associate minister of national defence — echoed Long’s sentiment, telling reporters on Parliament Hill she is “very excited to get started.”

New International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu said he’s “excited,” and “delighted,” when asked how he feels about his new role.

Sidhu has been an MP since 2019 and previously served as a parliamentary secretary to the minister of international development.

Asked about his priorities as the new secretary of state for defence procurement, longtime B.C. MP and first-time minister Stephen Fuhr said he hoped to “figure that out” in the cabinet meeting.

And Tim Hodgson — a former special adviser to Carney at the Bank of Canada and Goldman Sachs CEO, and the new minister of energy and natural resources — said he’s looking forward to “building,” and “digging in.”

“We have a lot to do,” he said. “I look forward to working with my provincial and territorial counterparts, our Indigenous partners, our industrial partners and other stakeholders to build a more prosperous, secure and safe Canada, and I will be going out west very soon.”

Fall economic update coming

The House of Commons is set to return on May 26, with King Charles III to deliver the Speech from the Throne the following day.

On Wednesday, Carney’s finance minister confirmed that after that ceremony, the Liberals will be making a series of economic moves.

“What we have today is the middle-class tax cut. That’s step one,” Champagne said. “Step two, you’re going to have a Throne Speech. We will outline the Canadian government priorit(ies), and there will be a fall economic statement to follow.”

“So those are really the sequence that you’re going to see,” Champagne added.

In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre criticized Carney’s government for planning a fall economic statement while opting out of a spring budget.

“As Canadian families struggle with rising costs and businesses face the crushing weight of American tariffs, the Liberal government is walking away from their responsibilities,” Poilievre wrote. “After months of building expectations and promising serious leadership, Carney announced he will deliver nothing.

“Canadians were told that Mark Carney, the supposed serious economist, would bring competence and clarity. Instead, we’re getting delays and dysfunction,” he added.