Thank you, ministers, and thank you to misters Villeneuve and Bellavance for welcoming us.
It is a pleasure to be here at Ateliers Belleville.
I had the chance to spend the morning with some of Montréal’s most creative minds. They told me how artists who could no longer afford their studios decided to create this shared space.
This shows that you need to be creative to achieve your goals.
It’s a budget for creative minds.
Last week, we tabled Budget 2026, the next step of our ambitious and pragmatic plan to make Canadians masters of our destiny.
A strong Canada – a country that is master of its own destiny – is not an end in itself, but the foundation for something greater, something compassionate and creative.
Compassionate to fulfil the promise we make to take care of each other, with the Budget setting Canada on the path to end homelessness within a decade.
And creative in setting the conditions for you to flourish.
I’m talking about all forms of creativity.
The writer at their desk. The sculptor in their studio. The ceramist at their wheel. The composer at the piano, the dancer in the rehearsal space, the designer, the filmmaker, the garage band.
Different fields, but a single focus: to bring life to something that did not yet exist. And, in so doing, show us something we have never seen in ourselves before.
There is no shortage of examples from Quebec.
Habitat 67 was conceived as a thesis project by a student at McGill University.
Cirque du Soleil started with a handful of street performers in Baie-Saint-Paul.
The Festival international de Jazz de Montréal, which was founded in 1980, has become the largest jazz festival in the world.
In each case, an idea that transformed a community and changed how we see ourselves in the world.
It is in this context that Budget 2026 included the largest investment in culture in Canadian history.
Four billion dollars. That’s five times the record amount in the last budget.
It’s an historic investment. Because our sovereignty begins with creativity. Because our artists should have the means to think big.
Because our culture deserves to shine.
This new budget is based on three ideas: memory, sharing, and creation.
It all starts with institutions that preserve our memory.
Our museums, our art galleries, our libraries, and our archives bring our heritage and our languages to life. They preserve them for future generations. But past generations have neglected them.
That is why Budget 2026 is allocating nearly $800 million to modernise our national museums and protect our national collections.
Memory means little unless it is shared. So, we are opening the doors.
Canadians have embraced the Canada Strong Pass, so we’re making it permanent. Families can keep exploring our national parks, museums, and galleries for free, and travel between them for less on VIA Rail.
Our national museums will be free, year-round, for every Canadian under 25. A young person will be able to walk into the Canadian Museum of History or the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on any day of the year and see their country, and themselves, more clearly.
For Canadians who live far from our national collections, we’re bringing those collections to them. Budget 2026 provides $60 million for the National Gallery of Canada to send travelling exhibitions across the country and put its collections online. A student in a rural, northern, or remote community will be able to see the very best of Canadian and Indigenous art from where they live.
And we’re creating a free national digital library of Canadian books. It will open with at least 200 titles and grow to more than 2,000, with room for up to two million loans a year.
The great works of Canadian literature, available for free to every Canadian.
Culture is not just something we look at: it’s something we experience together.
A stage. The walls of a gallery. A festival that gets a crowd moving on a summer night.
Next year, Canada will celebrate its 160th anniversary. To mark the occasion, the Budget is allocating $300 million to support local festivals and the performing arts in communities all across the country.
These stages and festivals do more than just showcase our artists; they bring people together, foster connections between neighbours, and build a sense of belonging.
It is in this same spirit that Canada will host the Sommet de la Francophonie in 2028, the first time it is doing so in 20 years.
The summit will bring up to 90 member states and governments together in the National Capital Region. It will showcase the diversity and vitality of Canada’s Francophone cultures and help strengthen ties between Francophones here at home and around the world.
Protecting and promoting the French language in the age of social media and artificial intelligence will be a central theme of the discussions.
Speaking of the media, this month, CBC/Radio-Canada is celebrating its 90th anniversary. For nine decades, our public broadcaster has brought us together, kept us informed, and reflected who we are. Budget 2026 is allocating an additional $300 million to ensure it can continue playing this essential role.
The heart of creation is you, and this is where we have been boldest.
The people in these studios are among the 200,000 Canadians who make their living as artists and the nearly 700,000 who work in culture. Many of whom are just getting by.
Budget 2026 delivers unprecedented support for young artists and for the creators working hardest to make ends meet.
First, we’re proposing a new Canada Creative Credit, making up to $45,000 of artistic earnings tax-free. Because a country that values art empowers its artists.
This is support that trusts the creative impulse. You don’t need to win a grant, be selected by a jury, or land a gallery show. No institution must decide in advance whether your work is worthy.
And it is for the painter and the poet, the fiddler and the filmmaker, the game designer and the dancer. Every creator, in every domain, on your own terms.
That means more artists can make a living from their art, and fewer have to give it up for a second job. It means more of the work that makes Canada sound, look, and feel like no other country on earth.
The second bold tax change is the Productivity Mega Deduction – yes, despite its name, it’s not just for big companies. This lets artists and cultural businesses write off the full cost of the tools of their trade, whenever they want.
That means the recording studio can buy its new console this year, not three years from now. The theatre can upgrade its lighting before next season. The ceramist can get the second kiln that doubles what she can make and sell.
We inherit what past generations have created. It is now our turn to enrich this heritage and pass it on to future generations.
Every Canadian artist had to start somewhere. Oscar Peterson, practising his scales in Little Burgundy. Marcelle Ferron, developing her talent at the École des beaux-arts de Québec. Jean-Paul Riopelle, painting his first canvases right here in Montréal.
And right here, where we are now, the next generation is already hard at work. Budget 2026 was designed for them.
Because a country that creates freely is truly sovereign.
And because, in an increasingly divided world, it is the things that bring us together that make us strong.
Yes, we are masters of our destiny.
And together, we are going further!
To artists here today and across the country: You are how we see ourselves, and how the world comes to know us. You reflect who we are and help us become who we want to be.
To live in a country that chooses to take care of each other and invest in creation is to truly be alive.
Long live Canada!