Toronto MP says he feels 'disrespected' after being dropped from cabinet
Beaches—East York MP Nate Erskine-Smith says he wishes new cabinet well, from outside looking in
Former housing minister Nate Erskine-Smith says it's "impossible not to feel disrespected" after being dropped from cabinet.
In a series of social media posts Tuesday, the member of Parliament for Beaches—East York said he ran in the recent election for the opportunity to make "an even bigger difference around the cabinet table and to help fix the housing crisis."
"Congratulations to new and old colleagues who were sworn in today," Erskine-Smith said in a post. "This moment calls for a capable team ready to get to work quickly. It's nice to see a number of colleagues receive overdue recognition and I'm hopeful we'll see a lot accomplished in the coming months."
Prime Minister Mark Carney shook up his cabinet Tuesday by moving some key players involved in Canada-U.S. relations into new positions and promoting 24 new faces in a move meant to signal change at the top.
Erskine-Smith was among 10 people Carney dropped from his cabinet.
A disappointing call
Speaking on CBC Radio's Metro Morning Wednesday, Erskine-Smith said it was tough to get the call from Carney telling him that he was out.
"Politicians are humans too, and it's impossible not to feel some disrespect that you put so much time in and that you came back for this and then it's not there anymore — but there are no guarantees in life either," he said.
The MP said he plans to stay in his role, but added that "you never know what the future holds.
"One is in this business for one reason and one reason only if they're doing it right, and that's to make the biggest difference you can. So on that basis, it's frustrating for sure."
Prime Minister Mark Carney overhauled his cabinet Tuesday in the wake of last month's election. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)
Erskine-Smith, who was first elected in 2015, said in January 2024 that he wouldn't run again in the next federal election, but reversed course in December after he was appointed minister of housing by then-prime minister Justin Trudeau.
He said that the way things played out with the new cabinet "doesn't sit right" with him.
"But I'm mostly disappointed that my team and I won't have the chance to build on all we accomplished with only a short runway," he said in a social media post.
Other MPs dropped from cabinet
Erskine-Smith said for now he'll be "working hard" for his constituents, restarting his podcast and returning to Parliament with "a renewed sense of freedom."
Also left out of the cabinet on Tuesday were former defence minister Bill Blair, former energy minister Jonathan Wilkinson, former Treasury Board president Ginette Petitpas Taylor and former environment minister Terry Duguid.
Several MPs who were shuffled out took to social media Tuesday to express their gratitude for the opportunity to serve.
Wilkinson said serving the country in cabinet "remains one of the greatest honours" of his life.
Petitpas Taylor congratulated the members of Carney's cabinet and said in French that she was proud to serve Moncton—Dieppe and support the government in building "a better Canada for all."
Arielle Kayabaga, who served as minister of democratic institutions and leader of the government in the House of Commons in Carney's first cabinet, said she was "deeply honoured" to have had the opportunity to serve as a member of the prime minister's team.
With files from Kyle Duggan and CBC News
"Erskine-Smith, who was first elected in 2015, said in January 2024 that he wouldn't run again in the next federal election, but reversed course in December after he was appointed minister of housing by then-prime minister Justin Trudeau"
Liberals aren't planning to table a budget this year, finance minister says
Last time government didn't table a budget was during the onset of the pandemic in 2020
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne says the Liberal government has a number of priorities to tackle before the House of Commons is scheduled to rise in June — but tabling a budget isn't one of them.
Prime Minister Mark Carney's cabinet met for the first time on Wednesday ahead of the House returning later this month.
Carney's government is staring down a number of significant challenges in the wake of last month's election, including the ongoing U.S. trade war. The prime minister has also committed to implementing a number of key campaign promises by the summer.
Champagne told reporters after Wednesday's cabinet meeting that his Number 1 priority is to pass legislation to implement a promised tax cut, which Carney has said will be in place by Canada Day. But the finance minister said the government won't be outlining its overall fiscal plan until later this year.
Finance Minister Champagne says Liberals will provide economic update in fall"Canadians have seen the priorities we have outlined during the campaign. Priorities are not going to be different," Champagne told reporters on Parliament Hill.
Champagne said the government is taking a "step-by-step" approach by ensuring the promised tax cut and throne speech are dealt with before the House rises for the summer.
The finance minister said the government will outline its fiscal spending in a fall economic statement — a sort of mini-budget the government typically provides each year.
But Champagne wouldn't offer a more specific timeline for that outlook other than to say it would be tabled in the "fall." The last fall economic statement was put forward in mid-December.
Champagne later told CBC News Network's Power & Politics that the fall economic statement would be "substantive," and that he didn't want to rush a projection on the federal finances.
"Hopefully by then there'll be less uncertainty that we need to factor into… I want to be straight with Canadians and give them the best possible picture that I can," he told host David Cochrane.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in a social media post on Wednesday that it was "unacceptable" that government wouldn't put forward a budget.
"The Liberal government is walking away from their responsibilities. After months of building expectations and promising serious leadership, Carney announced he will deliver nothing," Poilievre wrote in a post on X.
"Canadians were told that Mark Carney, the supposed serious economist, would bring competence and clarity. Instead, we're getting delays and dysfunction."
The federal budget, which provides an update on the health of the nation's coffers and outlines the government's spending priorities, is typically tabled in April. But because the federal election took place that month, and because Parliament was prorogued prior to the launch of the election campaign in late March, no budget has been tabled this year.
The timing of the election doesn't necessarily prevent the government from crafting a budget. Former prime minister Stephen Harper's government tabled one in June 2011 despite that year's election taking place in early May. (The Conservatives had tabled a similar document in March before the campaign.)
The last time the government didn't release a budget was in 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even though the government won't put forward a budget this spring, MPs will still need to pass the main and supplementary estimates — part of the legislative process for asking Parliament for more money to cover initiatives that haven't already been funded, or that require additional funding.
Governments are required to table main estimates once a year and supplementary estimates three times throughout the year while the House is sitting. The main estimates are meant to be passed every March, but haven't yet been tabled this year because the House hasn't been sitting. The next deadline for the supplementary estimates to pass is June.
The House is set to return on Monday, May 26 and the throne speech will be read the following day.
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Carney's cabinet meets for the first time as it stares down a pile of problems
Stalled EV projects, western alienation and Trump trade war looms large for new ministry
Prime Minister Mark Carney's newly constituted cabinet met for the first time Wednesday on Parliament Hill as the government grapples with a whole host of challenges it will be charged with fixing.
The new ministry has three distinct challenges, among others, bubbling up on its watch: a U.S. trade war that's already having an impact on Canada's sluggish economy, persistent consumer affordability challenges and restlessness in Western Canada over the future of natural resources development.
To address cost-of-living concerns, Carney said cabinet's first order of business is directing Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne to immediately draw up the legislation to pass what the government is calling a middle-class tax cut — a change that will save two-income families up to $825 a year.
"We're acting on affordability as we look to build up this economy," Carney said as he signed a "decision note" on the issue in front of the cameras in the cabinet room, not unlike how U.S. President Donald Trump has signed executive orders in the Oval Office.
Champagne said the tax cut will be introduced soon after Parliament returns later this month, and other initiatives will be outlined in the forthcoming speech from the throne — but there will be no budget until the fall, he said.
Carney,
centre, signs a document at the end of a meeting of the federal cabinet
in West Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
The last Liberal government's much-touted electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing strategy is also on shaky ground after Honda announced it will halt its multi-billion-dollar investments in this country — joining a growing list of indefinitely delayed, stalled or potentially failed Canadian EV projects amid tepid consumer demand for these vehicles and Trump's punishing tariffs on foreign-made autos.
Mélanie Joly, who moved from foreign affairs to industry in Tuesday's shuffle, said she will be fighting for autoworkers when she speaks to the head of Honda later today. "We'll make sure we're in solution mode," she said.
Carney also faces Western discontent with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith saying there needs to be a "reset" with how Ottawa treats provinces like hers after the perceived hostility of the last government. In the days since the federal election, Smith has said she will lower the threshold for referendums, potentially including one on Alberta sovereignty.
Smith's chief of staff is also raising red flags about Carney's new Toronto-area environment minister, Julie Dabrusin, who says on her MP website she has "taken a strong stance against oil sands expansion," something she framed as a virtue.
Guilbeault questions pipeline expansion
One of former prime minister Justin Trudeau's former environment ministers, Steven Guilbeault, also seemed to pour cold water on expanding pipeline capacity Wednesday — although that's not really a decision for him to make now that he's in charge of Canadian culture and identity under Carney.
The prime minister himself has said he's open to approving major infrastructure, including conventional energy projects such as pipelines.
"There are no investors, no companies that are saying they want to build an east-west pipeline right now," Guilbeault told reporters ahead of the cabinet meeting, noting it will be industry that builds one, not the government.
Guilbeault: 'As far as I know' no companies want to build east-west pipeline"We bought a pipeline and that's only used right now at about 40 per cent capacity. Maybe we should maximize the use of existing infrastructure," the former environmental activist turned politician said.
It's not clear where Guilbeault got that 40 per cent usage figure. As of late last year, the company itself was reporting approximately 692,000 barrels of oil per day moving through its pipeline system — about 77 per cent of its maximum capacity.
The company's CEO also reported that the pipeline moved 790,000 barrels of oil per day in March, which is an even higher percentage.
Smith seized on Guilbeault's comments Wednesday, posting on social media that TMX "is already close to capacity."
"This is just another example of how misleading and destructive this former environment minister was to Alberta's and Canada's economy and investment climate," she said, adding that Dabrusin should disavow Guilbeault's comments.
Smith, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and other oil patch boosters have long advocated for a new pipeline through central and eastern Canada to open up new markets for Alberta oil and end the country's reliance on foreign imports. Importers hauled in about 500,000 barrels of oil a day from the U.S., Nigeria and Saudi Arabia in 2023.
Poilievre said Tuesday the reappointment to cabinet of Guilbeault, whom he accused of furthering "a radical green agenda," is concerning.
Natural resources minister to head West 'very soon'
Meanwhile, Carney's new natural resources minister, Tim Hodgson, a past board member of Calgary-based oilsands producer MEG Energy, said he's headed out West "very soon" and is looking to work with industry to "build a more prosperous, secure and safe Canada."
Secretary of State Buckley Belanger of Saskatchewan said Carney is "quite serious about bringing this country together," and there will be Western voices around the cabinet table when the discussion turns to energy, pipelines and the like.
"We're going to keep explaining some of the issues as best we can — what plagues the province," Belanger said.
New secretary Belanger says Carney ‘on the right path’ to unite the countryAs for Trump, Carney has identified dealing with the American trade problem as among the most pressing issues for his cabinet.
The Prime Minister's Office released a list of those who will sit on the cabinet's new "secure and sovereign Canada" committee, which will be charged with managing Canada-U.S. relations — a file that Carney has said he will personally take the lead on. That committee will be chaired by Defence Minister David McGuinty, who accompanied Carney to the White House last week.
One person who is not on that 10-member committee is Transport and Internal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, whom Trump called "a terrible person" last week, although not by name.
Freeland said ahead of today's cabinet meeting that she's laser-focused on knocking down domestic trade barriers by Canada Day, one of Carney's major campaign commitments.
She said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) posits Canada could boost GDP by some four per cent if it does away with these internal roadblocks.
Minister
of Transport and Internal Trade Chrystia Freeland speaks to journalists
as she arrives for a meeting of the federal cabinet in West Block on
Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
"That is a lot. We need it right now," she said. "I really believe at this moment we can get it done. Internal trade has begun to be sexy — it's funny, but it's true."
Carney has appointed three different ministers who all share some responsibility for the trade file, at a time when government data suggests there has already been a sizable decline in exports to the U.S. amid the tariff standoff. The latest Statistics Canada figures peg the drop at about seven per cent.
International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu told reporters Canada is "over-leveraged with the U.S. and we need to diversify trade." He said one of his priorities will be opening up "new markets," but he didn't specify which ones.
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