Sitting 53 — November 7, 2025

The sitting was dominated by debate on Budget 2025, the “Canada Strong” budget, with the central political argument turning on whether the government’s spending plan would build prosperity or drive up debt and inflation. The main bill debated was the budget itself, debated under Government Orders as the Financial Statement of the Minister of Finance, and the House also debated a private member’s bill, the Jail Not Bail Act (Bill C-242). Oral Questions focused overwhelmingly on the economy, the budget, and carbon pricing.

The budget debate took up most of the day. The government’s budget proposes $51 billion over ten years for a “build communities strong fund,” $81.8 billion over five years for defence, elimination of the GST on new homes under $1 million for first-time buyers, a permanent national school food program, and a productivity superdeduction for business investment. Liberal speakers argued the budget would create jobs—citing 67,000 new jobs in October—cut taxes for the middle class, and make generational investments in housing, infrastructure, and defence. Conservatives opposed the budget, calling it the costliest deficit outside of COVID at nearly $80 billion, and argued it would fuel inflation, drive up food prices through the industrial carbon tax, and add $5,400 in inflationary spending per household. Bloc Québécois speakers opposed the budget, saying it failed to increase old age security for seniors aged 65–74, provided insufficient health and infrastructure transfers to provinces, and offered only $9 billion in new infrastructure money despite a $100-billion request from provinces. The NDP criticized the budget for abandoning climate targets, eliminating the emissions cap for oil and gas, and providing no new funding for the toxic drug crisis or for urban Indigenous friendship centres. A procedural point was raised about the budget’s annex of 75 legislative changes being available only in digital format, which the Bloc argued was a breach of transparency.

In Private Members’ Business, the House debated Bill C-242, the Jail Not Bail Act, introduced by Conservative MP Arpan Khanna. The bill would repeal the principle of restraint in bail decisions and replace it with a principle of public and community safety, expand reverse onus provisions for violent offences, restrict peace officer release for major crimes, and lower the threshold for assessing risk. Conservatives supported the bill, arguing that Liberal bail reforms had created a “catch-and-release” system that allowed repeat violent offenders to circulate freely, and cited rising violent crime statistics. Liberals opposed the bill, arguing it was constitutionally questionable and redundant with their own Bill C-14, which they said would create new reverse onus provisions for organized auto theft, home invasion, and human trafficking, and impose stricter bail conditions. The Bloc Québécois also opposed Bill C-242, calling it populist and warning it would undermine the presumption of innocence, and instead proposed a registry of criminal organizations and asset seizure measures.