Liberals confirm they don’t have enough votes to pass budget as of now

The Carney government currently lacks sufficient votes to pass its upcoming federal budget, according to Liberal House leader Steven MacKinnon.

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The Carney government currently lacks sufficient votes to pass its upcoming federal budget, according to Liberal House leader Steven MacKinnon. If this situation persists next month, Canadians will face another election.

“As we speak right now, we don’t have the votes,” MacKinnon told CBC News during an interview with anchor Rosemary Barton on Sunday.

Despite leading a minority government, MacKinnon asserted that the Liberals have a mandate to “bring this country forward economically.”

“The opposition parties will have to determine whether the differences between us are sufficiently large to cause the Canadians to go to the polls,” he said. “We would be reluctant to go to the polls.”

MacKinnon added that while the Liberals are willing to “negotiate on details,” they would “not negotiate on principles.”

“The principles of spending less to invest more,” he said. “Those are principles we won’t negotiate.”

The Carney government will table its first budget on Nov. 4, after failing to do so in the spring, when it is traditionally presented.

The budget requires a vote to pass once tabled; if it fails, Canada will be thrust into another general election just six months after Prime Minister Mark Carney won in April.

Carney and cabinet members have been meeting privately with opposition parties to ascertain their demands ahead of next month’s budget vote.

“We don’t believe an election is necessary,” said MacKinnon. “In fact, we think Canadians would rather the government get on with things and that’s what we’re proposing to do.”

MacKinnon further stated that if the budget doesn’t pass, it will be up to opposition parties to “explain to Canadians why they’re causing an election at Christmas time.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre published a letter Monday outlining his party’s demands, most notably calling for Ottawa to keep the deficit under $42 billion.

However, MacKinnon said Poilievre “already knows” his demands are “unattainable,” adding that the Conservatives want to subtract “hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue from the federal government, so that’s pretty hard to square.”

Meanwhile, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet has called for increased federal health transfers to provinces and Old Age Security payments for those aged 65 to 75, among other demands.

According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s latest report, interest charges on the debt alone will annually cost taxpayers more than federal government transfers to provinces for healthcare.

Earlier this month, Blanchet said there were no consultations and “no legitimacy” to the Liberals’ proposed budget.

In response to Blanchet’s comments, MacKinnon said, “coming from someone with 22 seats in a 343-seat House of Commons, that’s a little rich.”

However, the PBO also warned the nation is headed for a “sharply” increased deficit of up to $68.5 billion by year-end, calling the figures “definitely a cause for concern.”

According to the PBO’s latest report, interest charges on the debt alone will cost taxpayers over $55 billion this year—more than annual federal government transfers to provinces for healthcare.

Additionally, annual debt interest charges are projected to cost Canadians $82.4 billion by the end of the decade.