Canada's Spring Budget's Have Been Postponed Before

If the opposition wants the Liberal Gov't to fall, they should vote against one of the "supply bills," needed to fund government activities. They're also budgetary bills & confidence motions.

The May 14th, 2025 CBC News post, “Liberals aren't planning to table a budget this year, finance minister says,” notes the obvious, the incoming Mark Carney Liberal government has decided to forego presenting a spring 2025 budget.

The CBC post quotes Federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, who noted that the decision reflected a “strategic pivot” to address immediate priorities amidst US trade uncertainties and a “compressed” parliamentary schedule caused by the April 28th, 2025 Canadian Federal election.

But the budget postponements also reflects government efforts to avoid fiscal scrutiny during transitions or crises.

For more on that perspective, check out the May 15th, 2025 CPAC on YouTube post, “Conservatives criticize Liberals’ decision not to table spring budget – May 15, 2025.”

The Canadian federal budget is typically presented annually in the spring between February and April, by the Minister of Finance. It outlines the government’s fiscal plan, spending priorities, and economic projections for the upcoming year.

A fall economic update often supplements this, but the spring budget is considered to be the primary fiscal document.

While budgets are “expected” to be presented annually, there’s no strict legal requirement for a date when the budget needs to be presented or even a specific annual requirement for one.

But the government is required to pass “supply bills,” legislative instruments used by the federal government to obtain parliamentary approval for spending public funds to cover government operations and programs and fund its operations.

Supply bills can be passed with or without a budget bill. Supply bills are also “matters of confidence.” just like budget bills. The failure of a supply bill means that the government has lost the confidence of Parliament and the government falls.

According to Finance Champagne, the Carney Liberals plan to provide a fall economic update, with main and supplementary estimates covering funding sometime before the end of the year.

While the government frames this as responsible, opposition leaders like Poilievre and analysts like Page criticize it as a leadership failure that erodes transparency and delays critical policies.

The decision’s rarity, last seen in 2020, underscores its significance, but its success hinges on the Carney government’s success in dealing with those US trade uncertainties plus the fall statement’s clarity and economic outcomes.

Historical records and parliamentary analyses from the Library of Parliament and other sources indicate that postponing or skipping a spring budget is rare but has occurred under specific circumstances.

Below are four key examples before 2020 where the federal government delayed or did not table a spring budget:

1. The 1993–1994 Post-Election Transition:

   1. The Liberal government, led by Jean Chrétien, won the October 1993 election, defeating the Progressive Conservatives under Kim Campbell. The outgoing Conservative government, grappling with internal strife and a recession, did not present a spring 1993 budget, focusing instead on economic updates.

   2. No spring budget was tabled in 1993. The Chrétien government’s first budget was delivered on February 22, 1994, by Finance Minister Paul Martin, effectively delaying the budget cycle post-election. The election cycle and the need for the new Liberal government to address a significant deficit (inherited from the Conservatives) led to the postponement.

2. The 1984–1985 Post-Election Transition:

   1. The Progressive Conservative government, led by Brian Mulroney, won a landslide election in September 1984, following a Liberal government under John Turner (who briefly succeeded Pierre Trudeau). The election disrupted the fiscal calendar, as the outgoing Liberal government did not table a 1984 spring budget due to leadership changes and the campaign.

   2. No formal spring budget was presented in 1984. Instead, Mulroney’s Finance Minister, Michael Wilson, delivered an economic and fiscal statement in November 1984, outlining priorities, followed by a full budget on May 23, 1985. This effectively postponed the budget cycle to the following spring. In essence, the election and government transition made a spring 1984 budget impractical, with the new government needing time to prepare its fiscal plan.

3. 1968 Post-Leadership and Election Transition:

   1. The Liberal government, under Pierre Trudeau, faced a leadership transition after Lester Pearson’s retirement in 1968. A federal election occurred in June 1968, following a minority government period. The outgoing Pearson government did not table a full spring budget in 1968, as it was preoccupied with leadership contests and parliamentary instability.

   2. No formal spring budget was presented in 1968. Trudeau’s government delivered its first budget in October 1968 (a “mini-budget” by Finance Minister Edgar Benson), with a full budget following in June 1969. The leadership change, election, and minority government dynamics disrupted the budget schedule, leading to a postponement.

There were also two cases of postponements:

1. The 1972 - 1973 Liberal minority government under Pierre Trudeau, where the spring budget was delayed slightly and tabled on May 8th, 1973 due to negotiations with the NDP to maintain government stability.

2. The 1980–1982 Liberal government under Pierre Trudeau, where the 1982 budget, tabled June 28th, 1982, by Allan MacEachen, was delayed beyond the usual spring window due to economic uncertainty and policy debates.

The major lapses in 1968, 1984 and 1993, coincided with federal elections, which disrupt parliamentary sessions and require new governments to establish fiscal priorities.

The 2025 Carney Liberal decision to forgo the spring budget was driven by a recent election, trade war uncertainties, and a compressed parliamentary schedule, aligns closely with the situation in 1984 and 1993, where post-election transitions led to delays.

The two “minor” delays in 1973 and 1982 still attempted to adhere to spring timelines.

Comprehensive data on Parliamentary activities before 1960 is limited, but parliamentary records indicates that budgets were tabled annually in most non-election years.

Of course, the 2020 decision to forgo the budget that year was a special case. Everything that happened in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic was considered “special.”

But that’s a tale for another time.

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