Last Week Today Episode 200 Show Notes for Monday, June 2nd, 2025
Concerns over the Federal Budget, Home Ownership, Housing & Other Problems, Manitoba Wildfires & Agenda 2030, Sir John A "Unboxed," Drone Attack, New CDN Immigrants & Vaxx Side Effects.
Concerns over the Federal Budget
While Canada’s first attempt at a 2025 Federal Budget was tabled by then finance minister, Chrystia Freeland in April 2025, it never came to a vote in Parliament and was eventually superseded, first by the 2025 Federal Election and then by the incoming Mark Carney Liberal government, which postponed any official government budget until sometime this fall.
While the original budget proposal was discussed in forums like the April 19th, 2025 Ernst & Young post, “Canada tables Federal Budget 2024-2025.” it generally wasn’t well received and likely wouldn’t have passed Parliament.
As outlined in the December 16th, 2024 Financial Post story, “Canada’s finance minister Chrystia Freeland resigns in blow to Justin Trudeau,” that budget led to the very public resignation of Freeland, and set the stage for the collapse of the Trudeau government and the April 28th, 2025 Federal election, which brought the current government to power.
While, as outlined in the May 16th, 2025 Freedom Forum post, “Canada's Spring Budget's Have Been Postponed Before,” the current situation is not unique in Canadian politics, the situation is causing concern.
To mitigate the public concern and as outlined in the May 29th, 2025 Global News post, “Carney government tables $486 billion spending plan with few details,” the government has presented Parliament, “with a plan to spend about the same amount of money in the fiscal year ahead as the Trudeau government did in its final year — about $486 billion, a plan that left the Conservatives unimpressed.”
It’s not so much a budget as it is a spending estimate, without any indications of where the funding to support the spending will come from.
It’s also missing major campaign promises. According to the Global News post:
… indeed, the spending plan tabled Tuesday is almost certain to change when it is updated in the fall when it will likely include nearly $24 billion in spending commitments for this year that the Liberals promised during the election campaign.
There was no evidence that the spending plan tabled Tuesday contained, for example, $3.5 billion that campaigning Liberals said they would spend this year on a Trade Diversification Corridors Fund.
The Global post notes that the spending plan only includes spending, not revenue generation.
Conservatives have criticized the Carney government’s decision to postpone that formal budget until the fall, saying, among other things, that it’s difficult for Parliamentarians to consider and be asked to vote on a $486-billion spending plan without considering the government’s revenue plan at the same time.
The post also notes the inability of the previous Trudeau Liberal government to pass budget motions in its final year of office and notes how similar the current Carney government spending estimates are to the previous Trudeau government proposals.
Given all the data gaps in the “spending estimate,” the final numbers will almost certainly go up when the actual budget is finally presented.
For more, check out the May 29th, 2025 Northern Perspective on YouTube post, “Conservatives GOBSMACKED At Carney's $500 Billion Dollar Spending Bill.”
The international money market aren’t happy with Carney’s plans, either.
As outlined in the May 27th, 2025 Reuters post, “Investors brace for record Canadian government debt issuance as budget delayed,” the fall budget is looking more and more problematic.
The Reuters post notes that analysts currently estimate Canada’s borrowing needs for 2025-26 to be $628 billion CDN, surpassing the 2020-21 pandemic-era record of $593 billion CDN.
The increase seems to be caused by “increased Liberal Party campaign spending” perhaps intended to provide supports to insulate against the rocky economy, maturing pandemic-era debt (from the last time the government attempted to insulate Canadian’s from economic hardships), the proposed countermeasures against potential US tariffs and mortgage bond purchases intended to lower housing costs.
Money markets are worrying about rising borrowing costs, higher bond yields, and a lack of fiscal transparency, especially given Canada’s reliance on US exports.
In essence, the current Carney government is keen to follow down the same path as its Liberal predecessors. It’s hoping that, if the government continues to “grow the economy” then “the budget will balance itself.”
Here’s a reminder of what former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told us on the same topic in 2014.
The international money markets fear that Carney will use the Liberals fall budget to address economic pressures by inflating Canada’s debt burden and hoping the future works itself out.
According to Reuters, “Investors have said that Carney's experience as a central banker and fiscal crisis manager is reassuring, but the long wait for a budget is unwelcome.”
Add this to Carney’s precarious position in the House of Commons and the ongoing trade negotiations with US President Donald Trump, and the summer looks set for political adventure.
For more on the current Canadian political situation, its worth checking out the June 3rd, 2025 Elev8 Podcast on YouTube post, “NDP STUNS Liberals—Votes WITH Conservatives on Motion That Could FORCE Election!”
Also in the News this Week!
Home Ownership, Housing & Other Problems
Another reason for speeding up the 2025 Federal budget might be to head off some obvious problems in the Canadian economy. There are a lot of them.
As outlined in the June 1st, 2025 Better Dwelling post, “This Week’s Top Stories: Canadian Spending Freeze Begins, & Toronto New Home Sales Crash,” Canada’s economy is stalling, with real GDP growth at 0.5% in Q1 2025, but domestic demand and household spending flat-lining, which seems to signal a “spending freeze” or recession.
Home sales in central Canada are essentially nonexistent, and inventory rising to unheard of levels. Persistent unaffordability, rising unemployment, and “prime-aged workers” leaving for provinces like Alberta are driving the collapse, exacerbated by tariff uncertainty.
Even worse, Canadian “mega-landlords,” essentially large property owners like Canadian Apartment Properties REIT, Boardwalk and InterRent, are driving increasing prices and charging rents up to 44% higher than the neighborhood averages. The mega landlords are clustering “in marginalized communities traditionally known for affordable rents, to maximize returns.”
Consumer sentiment is at generational lows, despite a near-record TSX, creating a historic divergence that risks a self-fulfilling economic slowdown as households cut spending. Over 12,000 insolvency filings in March pushed the 12-month total to 137,635, a level seen only during the 2010 financial crisis and pre-pandemic 2020.
The story highlights Canada’s economic fragility, particularly in Toronto’s housing market, a key economic driver.
Is it time to question federal government and Bank of Canada policies fueling unaffordability and economic disconnects. Maybe.
For more an Canada’s economic problems, check out the June 2nd, 2025 CTV News on YouTube post, “Examining Canada's economy | CTV Question Period.”
Manitoba Wildfires & Agenda 2030
In other news this week, massive wildfires in Manitoba have triggered the largest evacuation in decades.
Uncontrolled wildfires in Manitoba, particularly in Flin Flon, Pimicikamak Cree Nation, and Mathias Colomb First Nation, have forced the evacuation of approximately 17,000 people, marking the province’s largest evacuation in “living memory.”
The Canadian military has been called in to assist and a state of emergency has been declared over large areas of the province.
Smoke has spread to two dozen US states, impacting their air quality and Canada has raised its National Fire Preparedness Level to 5/5, unusually high for early in the fire season.
For some, the fires underscore climate change’s immediate impact and raises questions about government preparedness, especially for Indigenous communities.
A good legacy media overview of the situation is the June 2nd, 2025 CBC News Manitoba on YouTube post, “Evacuation and firefighting efforts continue across northern Manitoba | Manitoba Wildfires.”
But for others who don’t necessarily trust the legacy media perspective, there are deeper concerns over what will happen after the firefighting finishes up for the season.
Some, like the June 1st, 2025 Larry Brandt on Facebook post, “Concise Summary: “Rio Law” and Canada’s Wildfire Land Clearance Agenda,” believe the specific responses to the current crisis were planned out thirty years ago in places like the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, through documents like Agenda 21 and its follow=up Agenda 2030, The Rio declaration and through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Brandt argues that the policies deriving from those events and documents are used today to justify:
Clearing people off their land “for their safety.”
Declaring the burned land “uninhabitable” and converting it to conservation or industrial use.
Removing the former residents of the burned land, separating them from their communities and friends, then moving them into widely seperated “smart” cities.
Placing responsibility for rebuilding the burned lands into the hands of environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-rated firms and UN-aligned agencies, instead of local governments.
Then rebuilding the region is with carbon tracking mechanisms, geo-fencing facilities and digital oversight managed by the ESG rated firms and UN agencies.
It’s essentially a landgrab against private landowners and native communities by the UN, an international organization intent on growing its power and influence.
Brandt and others note that wildfires often occur in areas rich in critical minerals (lithium, cobalt, copper), already targeted for ESG investment and smart infrastructure or near Indigenous communities being pressured with “development” deals.
These are things few in the legacy media are willing to discuss.
For more on this story, check out the May 2nd, 2023 NTD on YouTube post, “Zooming in on Agenda 2030, the "Master Plan for Humanity" - International Reporters Roundtable.”
Sir John A. “Unboxed!”
In other news this week, the boarded up Sir John A, MacDonald statue at Queens Park in Toronto is being unboxed and reopened to the public after being hidden for five years.
Here’s an overview of the situation courtesy of the May 31st, 2025 Rebel News on Bitchute post, “ Queen's Park Sir John A. Macdonald statue to be unboxed after years of being hidden.”
Drone Attack
The June 2nd 2025 NBC News post, “Ukraine's massive drone attack deep inside Russia lays bare Putin's vulnerability,” is a reminder that Ukraine is still capable of “stunning, audacious attacks whose widespread effects are only just becoming clear.
For more on this story, here’s the June 1st, 2025 NDTV on YouTube post, “Ukraine Drone Attack On Russia | Ukrainian Drones Strike Airbase In Russia, At Least 40 Aircraft Hit.”
New Canadian Immigrants
The May 30th, 2025 Juno News post, “Canada took in 817K new immigrants in first four months of 2025” is claiming that Canada took in 817,000 immigrants (permanent and non-permanent) in the first four months of 2025, including 132,000 permanent residents, 194,000 study permits, and 491,400 work permits.
The Federal government’s 2025–2027 Immigration Levels Plan targets 395,000 permanent residents for 2025, down from 485,000 in 2024, due to housing and economic pressures. Assuming an even distribution, this equates to roughly 98,750 per quarter or 131,667 for four months, aligning closely with Juno News’ claim of 132,100 permanent residents. Statistics Canada’s Q4 2024 data reported 103,481 permanent residents, supporting the plausibility of this figure for early 2025.
But the Juno claim of 817,000 immigrants (685,400 temporary) from January to April 2025 is not consistent with Statistics Canada estimates or publicly available Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) targets.
Official estimates suggest we’re going to take in another half million people this year, including those who overstay their student visa’s and work permits, down slightly from last year, but still an awful lot.
The Juno numbers suggest a far higher total.
Who’s right? Check out the June 1st, 2025 Marc Nixon on YouTube post, “CANADA 🇨🇦 IMMIGRATION MADNESS 200,000 added per MONTH to start 2025,” for more.
Vaxx Side Effects
And finally tonight, here’s the May 19th, 2025 Mongo Minds on Bitchute post, “Covid Vaccine Side Effects Were Present, Silenced And Ignored."
It’s a reminder that the true story of the great Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 - 2022 is only now starting to come out.
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