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Hamilton Spectator
18-07-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Carney budget cuts could hit Indigenous communities, veterans, report warns
OTTAWA — The Carney government's plan to cut around $25 billion from the federal budget in three years could bring deep cuts to money set aside for provinces and municipalities for public services, as well as funding for Indigenous communities, veterans, newcomers, research and foreign aid, a new report warns. The analysis released Thursday from the progressive Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives suggests such cuts could be unavoidable under the Liberal government's plans , which are nearly double what they promised during the spring election campaign, raising questions about why Prime Minister Mark Carney did not make the extent of those plans clear then. So far, no final decisions on cuts have been made yet, and the federal government has asserted that it would target programs that are 'underperforming, not core to the federal mandate, duplicative, or misaligned with government priorities,' despite warnings that the proposal could lead to job losses and service cuts. 'Half of these 'savings' are just cuts to somebody else, right? So it's not like you are cutting your own staff or your own professional services utilization,' economist David Macdonald, the author of the report, said in an interview. 'You're just pushing the problem onto somebody else's lap, whether that's veterans for disability supports, whether that's province or municipalities, whether it's First Nations governments, and then it's their problem to make cuts to their social services or health-care programs or whatever to make up for what you cut to them.' Many government departments would have no choice but to make such cuts because the vast majority of their spending goes toward transfer payments to other levels of government or organizations, says the report, which examined the roughly $190 billion pool of funding the federal government said is under review. The findings came as Carney, who met Thursday with First Nations leaders from around the country in Gatineau for a summit on the contentious major projects law the government fast-tracked through Parliament, faces significant pushback from Indigenous groups already frustrated over the lack of consultation by the government. Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, called on Carney to exempt transfers to First Nations from the coming federal cuts. While the government has said statutory transfers to provinces and individuals, like the Canada Health Transfer and the Canada Child Benefit, are exempt, funding for First Nations is not. In Ottawa, First Nations chiefs who gathered to protest the summit also slammed the government's proposed cuts. 'We manage poverty as leaders of our nations,' Chief Gary Lameman of Beaver Lake Cree Nation said. 'To hear that we're going to be getting more cuts to our programs is devastating.' Under the federal government's plan, which comes amid a pledge to 'spend less' and 'invest more' while committing tens of billions of dollars more to the military and cutting income taxes, nearly all government departments and federally funded organizations and Crown corporations are expected to propose 'savings' of up to 15 per cent of their spending in the next three years. Thursday's report suggests that more than half of the cuts will come from transfer payments to other levels of governments, non-profits and businesses, with one in five of the dollars cut being from money that now goes to First Nations governments for education, health care, policing and community infrastructure. Indigenous Services Canada has already warned staff that meeting its targets will impact jobs and programs, CBC has reported. Nearly $1 billion could come from income, disability and other health-care supports for veterans. Another $800 million could come from international aid, while around $500 million could come from both newcomer supports and research and science funding. Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty attempted to downplay those concerns on Thursday, saying it's her duty to offer the 'greatest level of service and program delivery' possible. 'For me, that means efficiency and refining that service delivery,' Gull-Masty told reporters. 'To me, that doesn't mean what I think the story is in the media right now.'
Winnipeg Free Press
03-07-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
NATO spending plan challenging for Canada
Opinion How much is $150 billion as an annual government expense? It's three times the annual Canada Health Transfer, the mechanism Ottawa uses to support provincial health care. In fact, $150 billion as an annual expenditure dwarfs the entirety of federal transfers each year ($100 billion) for health, social programs and equalization. In other words, it's a lot of money. However, it's also apparently the price of keeping one particularly bombastic president at bay. Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press files Prime Minister Mark Carney U.S. President Donald Trump has frequently stated that a massive increase in defence spending is table stakes for getting preferential treatment on trade issues. The connection between defence spending and trade was made patently clear last week in The Hague, where the leaders of NATO countries held their annual summit. NATO has been on tenterhooks since January, when Trump warned member nations that if they did not meet the (then) two per cent of GDP spending target, the world's biggest defence spender would abandon the alliance. Trump complained, and with some justification, that some NATO countries (including Canada) are failing to meet the existing target. Canada currently spends just over $62.7 billion on defence. In one of his first acts, Prime Minister Mark Carney pumped another $9 billion into the defence budget, which pushed Canada to the two per cent threshold. However, just as Canada finally fulfilled its NATO spending obligation, the target moved. Late last month, NATO nations endorsed a plan — first suggested by Trump — to increase defence spending to five per cent of GDP over the next decade, broken down into 3.5 per cent on direct military spending (troops, weapons, munitions) and 1.5 per cent on 'militarily adjacent' things such as roads and bridges, emergency health care and cybersecurity. For Canada, the new target would eventually mean $150 billion annually on direct and adjacent military spending. Carney said that over the next five years, Canada can demonstrate increased military spending rather easily in the adjacent category of projects, which could include investments in ports, highways, telecommunications and the development of critical minerals. It's the direct military spending that has the potential to cast a long shadow over the federal budget. Weekday Evenings Today's must-read stories and a roundup of the day's headlines, delivered every evening. Carney said if Canadians support the new spending target, it will mean 'considerations about what less the federal government can do in certain cases.' What federal programs could be impacted? Carney would not say, but when you're measuring increased defence spending in the tens of billions of dollars, you would need to start taking away from Ottawa's other hefty budget lines: transfers to the provinces, infrastructure spending and such programs as Employment Insurance, the Canada Child Benefit and federal pension funds. There is lots of wiggle room in this 10-year commitment. NATO leaders created a 10-year runway to achieve the new spending target knowing full well that in about three and a half years, Trump should cease to be president ('should,' because Trump has mused about finding a way to sidestep term limits). Should a Trump acolyte continue his legacy, it's quite likely the pressure to increase military spending will continue. However, there is one very important caveat in this equation that should be considered: the U.S. currently does not meet the new five per cent target. The U.S. spends roughly 3.5 per cent of GDP on its military, which is the most among NATO allies but still hundreds of billions of dollars below the new target. The U.S. will have to endure a domestic debate about whether this kind of spending is acceptable, even in a world that has been ravaged by conflict. It is often said that time heals all wounds. Perhaps time could, as well, play a major role reducing the need to spend more money on the tools of war by spending a bit more time and money on finding ways to stabilize global security.
Calgary Herald
25-04-2025
- Health
- Calgary Herald
Do we still believe in Canadian health care?
With less than a week until Canadians head to the polls, it's important to talk about the issue that touches every one of us: health care. This is not about slogans or sound bites. It's about what Canadians are living every day. ERs closing without warning. Patients waiting years for surgery. Nurses walking away from jobs they once loved. One in five people without a family doctor. These aren't just unfortunate outcomes of a complex system — they are the predictable results of years without leadership, planning or national will. Technically, health care is a provincial responsibility, but this crisis has outgrown that boundary. For more than a decade, the federal government has watched the system fracture without offering a serious, sustained plan to shore it up. The truth is, Canada has changed. Our population has grown by nearly 20 per cent in the past decade, driven largely by immigration. I say that not with alarm, but with clarity. As an immigrant myself — someone who came here nearly two decades ago and now serves as a surgeon and educator — I know what Canada offers. But I also know what it demands. Growth without planning is not progress. When millions of new residents enter a system that hasn't grown in proportion — in beds, staff or funding — the result isn't inclusion. It's backlog, burnout and breakdown. I see it every week. As an orthopedic surgeon, I meet patients who've waited two or even three years for surgeries that could restore their mobility and independence. These are not elective luxuries. These are life-changing operations, delayed until people can barely walk. During the Delta wave, I volunteered on COVID wards. What I saw wasn't a strained system — it was one on the edge. Today, patients still ask, 'How much longer?' I wish I had a better answer. What makes this harder to accept is how avoidable much of it is. We have bright, capable young Canadians who want to serve. But we've capped medical school seats, failed to plan for the workforce we need and leaned on short-term fixes — such as recruiting from abroad, often from countries with their own shortages. That's not sustainable and it's not fair. Meanwhile, provinces carry the bulk of health-care costs — often 40 to 50 per cent of their budgets — while Ottawa contributes just 22 per cent through the Canada Health Transfer. For years, provinces have asked for that share to rise to 35 per cent. What they've received instead are temporary boosts and pre-election gestures — none of which address the root of the crisis. And here's what we don't say enough: health care cannot thrive in a vacuum. A strong public system depends on a healthy, growing economy. And that economy — in turn — depends on smart policy, innovation, workforce participation and long-term planning. Under the federal leadership, Canada's per-capita GDP growth has fallen behind nearly every other advanced economy. Productivity has stalled. Revenues have thinned. The widening gap between ambition and reality is showing up every day — most painfully in our hospitals and clinics. We don't just need more money. We also need better thinking. A serious workforce strategy. Smarter investment. Less bureaucracy. And leadership that doesn't flinch at hard conversations. Health care is not just a service, it is a promise we have made to each other — one that says your pain matters, your effort matters and your well-being is part of the national good. This federal election isn't just about taxes or talking points. It is about whether we still believe in that promise — or whether we're willing to watch it fade — one closed ER and forgotten patient at a time. Because behind every delay is a Canadian — waiting, hoping, hurting. And behind every vote is a choice: to restore what once defined us, or to settle for less in a country that was meant to deliver so much more.
