Finance Committee on Feb. 5th, 2026

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Well, it's that you don't like it. Change the question and you may like the answer.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

No. Your parliamentary immunity allows you to do this. For a regular witness, this would actually be contempt of Parliament.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Well, that's your opinion.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

No, it's a fact. Witnesses have to answer questions.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Well, I'm a lawyer, and that's your opinion. As I said, I'm providing an answer. You just don't like it, but Canadians understand. You can play that game all day long, but that's okay with me. I'm a lawyer. That's fine. Ask the question again.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

In what year will you balance the budget?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

I'll say to you again, we live in the most uncertain time, and this is a time when you need to be fiscally prudent and use your fiscal capacity to invest in Canada.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

On fiscal prudence, you have made commitments in the past about what the deficit would be. During the election, I believe, you promised it wouldn't exceed its present level. It has doubled. The budget deficit that you tabled was double the last budget's deficit. Will next year be lower or higher than this year? Will you meet the projection? Can you give us anything?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Have you seen what happened in the last few months?

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

Yes, I've been here for 10 years, and every single finance minister, including all of your predecessors, has come here to this committee and made commitments that they never fulfilled, so it goes to credibility.

Canadians are watching, and they want to have confidence in their officials, but refusing to answer questions and to adhere to fiscal anchors and guardrails that you set for yourself and perpetually change erodes confidence in officials, because it means that Canadians don't know whether they can trust your words.

Can you give Canadians a plain answer about whether or not there is any plan to ever balance the budget?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

That's your personal opinion. I'd use humility, because if you look at the rating agencies and others, and the economists of the country, they understand where we're going. Even former Prime Minister Harper, whom you should listen to, in uncertain times—

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

Mr. Harper balanced the budget.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

—used the fiscal capacity, at a time of crisis, to protect Canada. That's what I'm doing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Kelly.

We continue with Mr. MacDonald for five minutes now.

[Kent MacDonald, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thanks again, Minister.

Atlantic Canada is having some electricity challenges, and it's been a result of, again, aging infrastructure and transmission lines that will not carry enough transmission for all the maritime provinces. The Prime Minister has been clear, in budget 2025, that he's interested in creating a clean electricity corridor across the country and doubling the supply of electricity that will be available. I wonder whether you could comment on that, speak to how that will take place. I know the clean electricity tax credit is going to incentivize the private sector to invest. We see Wind West as one of the named projects. In Atlantic Canada, it will be a combination of different proponents generating electricity to meet the needs of the day.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

There are great projects in energy generation and transmission in Atlantic Canada. I've been speaking to a number of premiers, and they understand that we just need to go on with these projects because they're going to be game-changers for the whole region.

There are a lot of opportunities in Atlantic Canada. You mentioned a few of them. I know there are other projects being considered, because it is very clear that energy is a proxy for growth in many ways. If you want to track investment and if you want to grow the economy, energy generation is fundamental to achieving that.

Therefore, I think what you've been doing, what the premiers have been doing and what we put in the budget.... If you look at the clean economy tax credits, I would say that Canada is by far the one on top of the list in the G7 when it comes to the clean electricity tax credit and clean energy generation tax credit. This is just another proof point that we understand where the ball is going. You want to be in this electricity stack. You want to produce the electrons in order to capitalize on the monetization of what they call the electricity stack in the digital economy of the future. You want to be able to attract the investments that will monetize, for example, what you see in AI and what you see in quantum.

It is a very smart way, in Atlantic Canada, to generate growth for future generations.

[Kent MacDonald, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

One of the other factors that have been identified is our trade diversification goals and reducing our reliance on our U.S. partner. I talk a lot to agricultural producers across the country—west, east and central. What they tell me is that the port infrastructure has to be expanded. I know budget 2025 mentions port infrastructure.

In Atlantic Canada, we have Halifax and Saint John. Some of the caucus met the other morning with the CEOs. They have a path forward. What's the role of government to help this port expansion?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

The port expansion is key. We have some projects in Atlantic Canada. We have some in Quebec. Contrecoeur, as you know, will expand capacity by 60%. We just need to do that.

We've been talking to some of the largest port operators and marine operators as well. They really like Canada. Honestly, in this world, Canada really stands out. They're looking at inland ports. They're looking at the expansion of ports. I can think of Prince Rupert. We can think also of the port of Vancouver. In Halifax, there are other opportunities, as you know. In Newfoundland and Labrador, I was just with the premier.

It's just that Canada is really the place where people are looking to invest and deploy capital. That's really the signal we got from sovereign wealth funds around the world. They say they're willing to partner with proponents in the country. That's why I believe in Canada. I'm confident.

There's a bit of headwind, but we have everything to succeed as a nation, because our people are resilient. Our economy is more resilient than we expected, and with the investments that we have put in budget 2025, we have a road map from 2023 to succeed as a nation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

You have 30 seconds left.

[Kent MacDonald, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I have a quick comment on defence. As we roll out defence investments, obviously all of us who are MPs are trying to identify opportunities in our own particular areas and ridings. I've identified an opportunity. I've identified that we could do it in a dual-purpose way. It could be infrastructure invested that would help with trade diversification, but it would also help the defence file.

Is that what you're running into across the country—that we're getting—

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Mr. MacDonald. We're going to have to end it there.

Mr. Garon, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister, you abolished the digital services tax to facilitate trade negotiations with the United States.

Did Donald Trump send you a Christmas card?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

No.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Did he send one to the Prime Minister?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

I don’t know what he gets in his mailbox.