With just a few months of the year left, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals are hoping to hit the ground running when Parliament resumes Monday for its fall session.
The government made a flurry of announcements over the summer in between Carney’s overseas travels and an important byelection — setting up a fall legislative session that will be dominated by chatter of nation-building projects, defence and trade when they return to the House.
Here are some things to watch out for:
Trade
Trade tensions with the United States will remain a focus as the federal government continues to negotiate for the removal of tariffs while gearing up for broader discussions as part of next year’s review of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
There has been little to report on Canada-U.S. trade negotiations since Canada lifted some of its retaliatory tariffs on goods covered by CUSMA. Last week, Privy Council clerk Michael Sabia was down south for “technical” talks in hopes of helping Ottawa secure “some relief” on sectoral tariffs slapped on steel, aluminum and automobiles. But little has been said since.
U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods not covered under CUSMA, as well as global sectoral tariffs, remain in place.
Meanwhile, Carney will travel to Mexico this week to meet with President Claudia Sheinbaum amid pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to impose further tariffs on China. The pair are expected to not only talk about their negotiations with the United States, but also discuss bilateral trade.
Carney, meanwhile, has been sending high-profile ministers on international trade missions throughout the summer in an effort to diversify Canada’s trading relationships. This includes sending his parliamentary secretary, Kody Blois, and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe to China. Carney has indicated he wants to try to open negotiations with the country, which has hit Canadian canola with a nearly 76 per cent tariff.
The federal government has also said it’s looking into whether to drop its tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) — a levy that was imposed by the Justin Trudeau government last year. Whether this will be a continued conversation now that Trump has issued a request to NATO countries to impose tariffs on China as a tactic to end Russia’s war in Ukraine is unclear.
The prime minister has also said that the government will start “detailed work” on a new partnership with the European Union on defence, trade and energy, later this month.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, for example, spent the summer cozying up to allies like Germany, Sweden and Finland in hopes of striking defence procurement deals. Earlier this month, she said Canada is looking to its European and Asian allies as Trump changes the rules of economic trade.
Canadians can expect to see these negotiations continue throughout the year.
Major projects
Carney’s Major Projects Office (MPO) is officially open, along with the Indigenous advisory council meant to help guide the decision-making.
The federal government has put forward five projects that it believes are in the national interest and should be considered. Selected projects will be subject to sped-up approval processes and reduced regulatory hurdles in an effort to fast-track them to completion.
The five projects are:
- An LNG Canada expansion in B.C. to double the company’s capacity to export to international markets;
- Building a small modular nuclear reactor in Darlington, Ont.;
- Port development work at Quebec’s Contrecœur terminal;
- The McIlvenna Bay Foran copper mine in Saskatchewan;
- And the Red Chris copper expansion, which is part of a proposed Northwest Critical Conservation Corridor also being sent to the MPO.
Environmental critics, as well as some Indigenous leaders, have expressed concern that the government has given cabinet too much power to override some existing federal laws meant to protect the environment, and that it could lead to a lack of Indigenous consultation.
It’s also likely to be a topic of conversation for the opposition, who have argued that Carney has been moving too slowly on his pledge to speed up construction of nation-building projects and that the projects recommended are already well on their way to the finish line without the federal government’s help.
Budget
The Carney government is expected to table its first budget in October.
Typically, the federal government introduces its annual budget in the spring, but that process was delayed with Trudeau’s leadership woes and Carney’s rise to power.
Officials have remained tight-lipped about what to expect and whether they will be dividing up the document into two as Carney originally promised during the election campaign. This would mean the feds would pitch both an operating and a capital budget.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne has hinted that the budget will aim to make the government “leaner,” to allow for greater investments in housing and other major priorities. To do so, Champagne directed the public service sector to cut spending by 15 per cent over three years.
This, the government has said, is supposed to help balance a call for austerity and, at the same time, investment.
An additional challenge is that the government also needs to make room for an increased NATO commitment to spend five per cent of GDP annually on defence by 2035. Canada has yet to reach its first goal of spending two per cent of GDP on defence, although Carney has said it will meet that target by the end of this fiscal year.
The return of Poilievre
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre will be back in the House Monday after spending the last legislative session on the sidelines.
The CPC captain won his Battle River—Crowfoot byelection last month following a stinging defeat in his riding of Carleton that saw him kicked out of Parliament in April. MP Andrew Scheer took over his parliamentary duties and will now be stepping aside for his return.
Poilievre made it clear that he will continue opposing Carney’s Liberal government at every opportunity, focusing on familiar points of contention like the EV mandate (which the government has since paused pending a review), housing costs, bail reform and immigration. But he has offered co-operation on securing a deal with Trump.
In a letter outlining his fall legislative priorities, he said that his party, as the Official Opposition, will hold Carney to his “lofty promises on these Liberal crises.”
Expect to see the CPC leader try to get into the spotlight ahead of the party’s national convention in January 2026, where Poilievre will face a vote that will determine his future as captain.
Meanwhile, the New Democrats will be operating with their interim leader Don Davies, who will continue to hold down the fort for another legislative session after Jagmeet Singh’s election-day resignation.
The party plans to choose its next leader at its Winnipeg convention in March 2026.
Bills to watch in the House
Media reports are suggesting that Carney’s government will introduce a bill this session that would make it easier for police to lay hate-crime charges and make it illegal to try to intimidate someone or try to stop them from accessing facilities used by identifiable groups, like places of worship and schools.
There will be an exemption for lawful protest, the government said.
There are also a series of bills that will be making a return to the House from the last legislative session.
C-2, the Strong Borders Act
This legislation gives officials more power to suspend immigration documents, tighten the asylum claims process, and allow more intelligence collection across government entities, among other things.
It also gives police more power to open and inspect mail, require electronic service providers to provide police more information without warrant, and outlaw cash transactions greater than $10,000.
This omnibus bill reached second reading in the House.
The legislation has been criticized by advocates worried about Ottawa having unchecked powers around the handling of immigration documents and instituting time limits on asylum seekers making their applications.
C-3, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act:
This legislation allows parents to pass their Canadian citizenship on to their children regardless of whether they are born. The law applies to one generation, so if citizenship is passed on to a child born outside of the country, that individual won’t be allowed to go through the same process.
The bill is still undergoing second reading.
C-4, the Making Life More Affordable for Canadians Act:
This is the result of the Liberals’ ways and means motion cutting the lowest personal income tax bracket to 14.5 per cent for the 2025 tax year and 14 per cent for 2026 onward. The parliamentary budget officer estimated the average Canadian family will save $280 next year if this bill passes.
The legislation is awaiting study by the House finance committee.
— With files from Palak Mangat
