Good morning.

I want to thank my colleagues from the National Capital Region.

I want to especially thank Chris d'Entremont, the Member of Parliament for Acadie—Annapolis.

Chris is a dedicated community leader and parliamentarian, including serving as a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons.

Chris, your commitment to building Canada’s future will greatly contribute to the government’s mission at this crucial time for our country.

It’s a pleasure to join you from the Albion Yard, a place where engineers, welders, and machinists combine their skills to build infrastructure that lasts.

The history of nations is punctuated by hinge moments – times when the future hangs in the balance, when our actions must be decisive.

Canada is facing one of those moments right now.

Technological change is accelerating. The world is more dangerous and divided. The global trading system is being rewired, threatening jobs and businesses under a cloud of uncertainty.

These profound changes demand a bold response.

Yesterday, Canada’s new government tabled our first budget.

We presented a clear picture of what’s happening to our economy – of what’s being taken from us.

It’s estimated that U.S. tariffs and the uncertainty they’re creating will cost us around 1.8% of our GDP.

That’s about $50 billion lost from our economy, the equivalent of $1,300 for every Canadian.

While we can’t control what the U.S. does, we can decide what happens here.

This is Canada – we can build the future we want for ourselves. We can get that money back, and more.

We are masters of our own house. Canadians decide what happens here.

This is our country. This is your future. We will give it back to you.

Budget 2025 is our new economic strategy to respond to current challenges and emerge stronger.

A plan that builds on our strengths, our values, and our history as adventurers, risk-takers, and builders.

A plan for a confident Canada that takes back control of its future by catalysing generational investments to:

• Protect our communities, our borders, and our way of life.
• Build a stronger economy where everyone has the chance to get ahead.
• Give Canadians new opportunities, better careers, and a more affordable cost of living.

Budget 2025 is a bold strategy to unleash over a trillion dollars in total investment in Canada over the next five years.

That can increase our GDP by over 3.5%, equivalent to more than $3,500 for every Canadian – delivering far more for Canadians than what’s being taken from us.

Now is not the time to be cautious, because fortune favours the bold.  It’s a time to get big things done for Canadians, fast.

So, we’re building one Canadian economy – turbo-charged by new infrastructure to connect our regions, diversify our markets, make us an energy superpower, restore affordability to housing, and secure our borders and our communities, while creating hundreds of thousands of high-paying careers – from the skilled trades to advanced technology.

And Budget 2025 will make these generational investments while maintaining Canada’s strong fiscal advantage by taking responsible, pragmatic choices.

We are changing how government works – spending less on government operations so Canadians can invest more in our future.

We are making government much more productive by rightsizing, cutting red tape and wasteful spending, and adopting AI at scale.

So, Canadians can count on their government to be more efficient in delivering services that matter.

We are slowing growth in direct program spending from 8% to under 1%. We will balance our operational budget over the next three years and maintain the strongest balance sheet in the G7.

Building the future we want, starts with building the communities we want.

Some of the biggest investments in Budget 2025 are in local infrastructure, including a new $50 billion Build Communities Strong Fund.

We will modernise colleges and universities, so Canadian workers and talent can train for the jobs the country needs most.

We will invest in new medical schools to address the national shortage of doctors and nurses and to provide Canadians the care they need.

We will build new roads and bridges so you can get where you are going more easily, and our products can move more quickly.

And we will modernise the buses and trains that connect our communities, like the O-Trains right behind me.

We will provide federal funding to help build and revitalise Canada’s hospitals, so you get the care you need.

In many communities, hospitals built in the 1970s are now serving twice the population they were designed for.

So, we’re deploying $5 billion to build more emergency departments and new urgent care centres, and to procure modern equipment so doctors and nurses can deliver care faster.

We will invest limited public capital in ways that create certainty and attract private investment across the country.

The Building Strong Communities Fund will address Canada’s infrastructure deficit and help rebuild our productivity.

We will work with provinces and territories to stimulate more investment – by matching funds or by eliminating certain development fees.

If a local government makes it easier to build homes faster, our government will help them build even more.

That’s how incentives should work: all levels of government pulling in the same directions, toward the same goal.

With Build Canada Homes, we are turbo-charging housing construction and mainstreaming advanced methods of construction, with the potential to cut building timelines by 50%, reduce costs by 20%, and lower emissions by 20%.

In this way, as we build millions more affordable homes for Canadians, Canada can become a global leader in new construction techniques, sustainable materials, and advanced manufacturing.

You see, Budget 2025 is not only about what we build – but also about how we build.

We are building sustainably, with low-carbon investments that make Canada more competitive.

We are building in solidarity with workers, creating good union jobs across in the skilled trades.

We are building inclusively, in full partnership with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. 

And, above all, we are building Canadian – with Canadian workers, Canadian steel, lumber, and expertise.

A single project can generate orders for steel in Hamilton, concrete in Calgary, and heavy equipment rentals in Laval.

The modernisation of the water system in Moncton creates work for local excavation crews and pipe manufacturers.

When provinces and municipalities start designing new water plants, roads, or hospitals, they create contracts for construction companies, engineers, equipment suppliers, electricians, plumbers, project managers.

Each contract supports dozens of sub-contracts – trucking, surveying, fabrication, IT support – the entire ecosystem of small and medium-sized businesses that make up Canada’s industrial base.

The short-term effect is thousands of good jobs in construction, trades, and logistics during the building phase.

The long-term effect is high-paying, fulfilling careers with recurring contracts year after year. That’s what $1 trillion in investment builds.

We will build Canada strong with projects that build our communities strong.

By investing in the Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex in Orleans, we build Orleans strong.

By investing in the Bissell Centre – focused on reducing homelessness – we build Edmonton strong.

By investing in the Toronto Metropolitan University Medical School – we help doctors and nurses train – so we build Brampton strong.

With the Chantier Naval Forillon, we build the Gaspé Peninsula strong.

Canada’s strength wasn’t built in the halls of Parliament. It was built in your communities.

Built by workers who pour concrete and weld steel.

By innovators who push boundaries of discovery, inventing the technologies that build our future.

By veterans who enrol in colleges and start their own business serving their town after defending our country.

By doctors, nurses, and scientists who save lives, too often doing more with less.

Budget 2025 puts power back in the hands of communities so we can build bigger, faster, and more than ever before.

A plan that creates the right conditions to build right here, at home.

With stronger, more caring communities.

Because we are Canadian – we also take care of each other and look out for one another.

With the Budget, we are protecting our social programs, including child care, dental care, and school meals.

We will protect our transfers to provinces for health, education, and social programs.

The work ahead will not be easy, because the challenges we face are not small.

But in this moment of great change and deep uncertainty we have a choice. 

We can retreat, slash the deficit, hope for the best, wait and see if the “trickle down” ever comes.

That will gut support to the most vulnerable Canadians just when they need it the most. And it won’t grow our economy.

Or we can advance. We can empower Canadians – and build this country bigger and bolder than ever before.

We can move from reliance to resilience. From uncertainty to prosperity.

We can be masters in our own house and look out for everyone in it.

We choose Canada.

We are investing in Canada and for all Canadians.

This is our country. This is your future. With Budget 2025, we are taking back control.

To build Canada strong.

Thank you.