True Patriot Love - 2025 Budget： New Accounting, Same Spending ｜ PART 3

00:00:00.880 Today on the True Patriot Love Media Network, Under the Pillar Economy, we're going to look at Bucket 2 of the 2025 Federal Budget,

00:00:10.800 capital expenditures budgeted by the Federal Government that are now being accounted for differently.

00:00:16.080 In Part 1, we broke down the deficit numbers, understanding that the $507.5 billion in Federal Government revenues

00:00:24.280 do not cover their expenses of $586.2 billion.

00:00:30.000 This gives us a deficit, or as a corporation would say, a loss, of $78.3 billion for 2026.

00:00:38.580 The 2025 budget was delivered months late, but was well-written.

00:00:44.900 Lots of work went into changing the full accounting of the budget from a cash basis to an accrual basis.

00:00:50.840 We followed the UK in changing our accounting, but most Canadians, mainstream media, and our MPs struggled to follow the budget,

00:01:00.680 focusing on the Federal Government's operating deficits of $78.3 billion for 2026.

00:01:07.620 Not on the new or old capital expenditures, nor on the fact that the debt ceiling was being raised to $2.54 trillion.

00:01:16.500 We needed to borrow a whopping $137.9 billion in 2026, and it's going to grow to $147 billion in 2027.

00:01:30.160 Believe it or not, our capital expenditures for 2026 are $45.4 billion and $56.7 billion in 2027.

00:01:42.300 On top of the deficit, understand these capital expenditures are not part of bucket one.

00:01:50.260 The $78.3 billion operating deficit or loss.

00:01:54.520 These capital expenditures are added on top of the operating losses.

00:01:59.000 That is why the country had to borrow so much.

00:02:02.080 When we dug into it, over 80% of the capital expenditures are simply part of all budgeted projects that have been in place since the Trudeau government.

00:02:13.980 About 20% of the capital expenditures budget are from new programs.

00:02:20.180 Is this status quo, or are new projects really happening?

00:02:24.080 Why are the Conservatives' bloc and NDP not asking for better accountability, reporting, and performance measures of these programs?

00:02:34.580 We don't know.

00:02:35.920 Federal budget approvals always have a lot of political grandstanding.

00:02:39.820 But with the U.S. moving away from Canada, we need to focus as a country and not take old projects and repurpose them with no increase in productivity or GDP.

00:02:49.000 Doing so will have dire consequences for all of us, individually and as a nation.

00:02:56.300 So stay tuned and let us know your thoughts.

00:02:59.600 Today on True Patriot Love, we're going to dig into part three of the 2025 budget.

00:03:18.000 I have Mike Wicks in here, again, to go through capital expenditures.

00:03:23.020 So we kind of uncovered a bunch of stuff over the last two, and quite frankly, it's very interesting when we dug into the capital expenditures of the government.

00:03:35.520 First of all, I'm going to recommend to people, go back to the other two episodes.

00:03:39.120 Yeah.

00:03:39.540 This is a completely new budget system.

00:03:41.980 We've never seen budgeting like this in my life, I don't think.

00:03:45.580 Yeah.

00:03:45.840 You know, it's based on, I guess, budgeting and finance approaches that are very different from what we've looked at before.

00:03:55.620 And when you get past that, there's a lot to understand here about what's really new and what's already in play as part of the government's ongoing expenditures.

00:04:08.840 Yeah.

00:04:09.220 No, thanks, Mike.

00:04:10.220 And I totally agree.

00:04:11.900 I tried to break down, you know, last program that we did, I tried to break down the budget into two buckets, operating bucket and a capital bucket.

00:04:23.000 And what I did, the slide that's up right now shows you the operating deficits from 2025 to 2027.

00:04:31.280 So, you know, I didn't go past 2027, quite frankly, because I didn't think, you know, the listeners would want to do much more after we got to 2027.

00:04:41.100 Well, also, at that point, it seems a little pie in the sky.

00:04:44.360 Yeah, it does.

00:04:45.080 And I think we're going to have to, again, pivot.

00:04:47.780 We're going to have to look at what's happening in 2027.

00:04:50.260 And I think a lot of plans may be changing based on what we're finding at that time.

00:04:55.040 So I think it's really important just to look at this year again.

00:04:59.200 And for listeners, I won't spend a lot of time on it, but everyone remembers that the budget came out late.

00:05:05.080 And quite frankly, 2026, we got the news that we're going to have a $78.3 billion operating budget deficit this month.

00:05:17.040 So in November, you know, we found out, hey, by the way, it looks like we're going to have spent, overspent $78.3 billion on our operating deficit.

00:05:29.060 And we're going to do some capital expenditures based on, as Mike said, a new accounting system.

00:05:36.640 So we got a lot of news between October and November of what's happening in this budget.

00:05:42.180 So I want to kick off.

00:05:43.760 Before I kick off, I want to just say the important part of this, so in this capital expenditure program, is that we have to pay for the capital expenditure.

00:05:52.860 So keep that in mind.

00:05:54.140 And, you know, on the last show, I kind of used, you know, a personal finance analogy.

00:05:58.980 Imagine this is, you know, your business is losing money, and then you actually go out and you buy a new home, and you decide to put a swimming pool in.

00:06:08.040 Right.

00:06:08.320 So that's just...

00:06:09.300 Now you've got to cover the expenses that are so difficult now in your business, and you've got to cover the new wonderful home and pool that you have.

00:06:18.660 But you've put it all into a different scenario that makes it financing feasible over a long period of time.

00:06:27.360 Right.

00:06:27.860 Exactly.

00:06:28.300 Now, hoping that your personal and business economy will come back.

00:06:33.220 And you're hoping that you can kind of have people come over and charge them to swim in your pool to pay for the house and the pool.

00:06:38.940 Yeah.

00:06:39.380 Yeah.

00:06:39.780 So...

00:06:40.300 Get ready to Airbnb.

00:06:41.820 Canada, get ready to Airbnb this country.

00:06:44.560 So, you know, I know that's a little bit too simple, but...

00:06:47.420 No, but it does make sense.

00:06:48.860 Yeah.

00:06:49.060 Yeah, that's the scenario we're in.

00:06:51.160 And, you know, again, I don't...

00:06:53.660 Not being too critical on this budget, I just want to say again that the budget itself,

00:06:58.180 it's so well written.

00:06:59.120 I'm very impressed with the actual writing of the budget and the guys who put it together and the amount of work it took to actually put it together.

00:07:06.080 It's amazing that they got it off and got it put together.

00:07:10.740 Some challenges as we're going to go through.

00:07:13.180 So, you know, again, capital expenditures for this year, so ending 2026, are going to be $45.4 billion.

00:07:23.900 Yep.

00:07:24.100 So, when you have to finance the government for this year, you're looking for $137.9 billion in finance.

00:07:33.040 Wow.

00:07:34.100 Because you have your operating deficit and your capital expenditures, and then you have some to and fro of pension liabilities and stuff you have to bridge.

00:07:42.680 So, you know, when you do the math and you go through it all and you reconcile it all, that's what you need.

00:07:48.360 In 2027, we have a $65.4 billion operating deficit, and our capital expenditures are $56.7 billion.

00:07:59.840 We're going to need $149 billion to make it work.

00:08:04.680 So, that's our financing numbers.

00:08:06.240 That's the actual number.

00:08:07.600 That's the actual number.

00:08:09.040 That's the money we're going to need to make it work.

00:08:11.320 So, by 2027, $149 billion will be the budget.

00:08:16.300 Yeah.

00:08:16.840 Now, you know, going back to the rationale.

00:08:20.320 So, Mike, you want to – and, you know, before the show, we were reading this.

00:08:24.560 So, there is a rationale why we did this.

00:08:27.200 So, why we changed our accounting structure, why we decided to do that.

00:08:31.940 Yeah.

00:08:32.480 It looks like it's been done in other parts of the world.

00:08:34.420 Like, it's been justified and used in other places.

00:08:38.180 Right.

00:08:38.460 They used the U.K. and Singapore and some of the provincial budgets, quite frankly, they mentioned.

00:08:45.680 But pretty much, you know, they followed what the U.K. is doing, except for a few small tinkering changes.

00:08:53.480 But, you know, the government – and this is the statement of the government.

00:08:57.560 The government is adopting a capital budget framework, a new way of budgeting that makes capital investment the national priority.

00:09:04.240 This framework helps distinguish day-to-day operational spending from capital investment, broadly defined as spending that supports capital formation, allowing the government to identify and prioritize initiatives that deliver long-term economic returns.

00:09:22.560 The framework also increases transparency, allowing Canadians to better understand what funds service today and what builds future prosperity.

00:09:32.300 May I chime in for a moment?

00:09:34.660 Sure.

00:09:35.320 Okay.

00:09:35.880 A couple of questions, a couple of statements.

00:09:38.180 The first question I have is broadly defined as spending that supports capital formation.

00:09:44.420 It means absolutely nothing.

00:09:46.640 This allows the government to identify and prioritize initiatives that deliver long-term economic returns.

00:09:52.680 The old cash budgeting system didn't allow for that?

00:09:56.920 Yeah.

00:09:57.420 Oh, sure it did, right?

00:09:58.340 I don't think – what your plan is, really, accounting shouldn't really impact it.

00:10:05.560 Right.

00:10:06.180 Right.

00:10:06.700 I do keep feeling that a little bit about this budget, to be honest with you.

00:10:10.500 Yeah.

00:10:10.860 It feels part marketing and part really sugar-coated bad news.

00:10:16.760 Well, I think, yeah, a little bit.

00:10:18.640 We wanted to – you know, in 2026, the budget came out late.

00:10:22.560 We were already on this path.

00:10:24.300 Yeah.

00:10:24.520 So, I think it was, okay, we're on a path.

00:10:27.300 We didn't tell anyone about it.

00:10:28.320 Right.

00:10:28.720 So, you know, a change in accounting would be helpful.

00:10:32.940 Well, hold on.

00:10:33.640 We're in trouble and we didn't tell anybody about it.

00:10:36.840 So, now how are we going to package this up knowing that we have to spend so much more?

00:10:41.020 Okay.

00:10:41.520 Spend only a little bit more and make the rest look like we're advancing the country with this bloated budget we're already working with.

00:10:50.620 That's how it feels to me.

00:10:51.720 I'll be honest with you, Paul.

00:10:52.780 Right.

00:10:53.360 Well, I think they had already determined that they needed to try to spend out of the problem.

00:10:58.280 Yeah.

00:10:58.760 So, you know, and whether, you know, they had a budget out late, which they did.

00:11:03.540 And so, quite frankly, you know, putting this on the balance sheet, you know, capitalizing some assets and then expensing having a large deficit, it is a way to kind of smooth it out.

00:11:14.560 It kind of feels like it.

00:11:16.040 Yeah.

00:11:16.260 It is.

00:11:16.760 It feels like Bondo.

00:11:18.180 And for the youth of today, Bondo is how I kept my car together during the 80s.

00:11:22.380 Right.

00:11:23.080 Yeah.

00:11:23.240 So, you know, the beginning of the budget is a lot of really great charts.

00:11:26.380 So, one of the charts, I picked a couple of them out because I think they indicate what's happening very clearly.

00:11:32.080 So, we have one here that's budget 2025 projected deficits.

00:11:37.020 So, and it says, by 2020-29, the deficit will entirely support the investments that grow the economy.

00:11:46.500 Mm-hmm.

00:11:47.700 Well, that remains to be seen, right?

00:11:49.400 Well, it's really kind of saying that our capital spending and our deficits will be almost equal.

00:11:55.960 So, what they're saying is they're going to match up.

00:11:59.240 Okay.

00:11:59.440 So, as you can see that, you know, we're going to have $58 billion in capital spend and we're going to have $58 billion roughly in deficits.

00:12:07.240 So, you know, that's the goal is to kind of co-join them.

00:12:10.120 So, you know, they're kind of converging.

00:12:12.920 So, as your deficits are slightly going down, because our deficit right now is, you know, coming out of 2026, it's $78 billion.

00:12:20.780 It's a crazy amount.

00:12:21.940 It's very high.

00:12:22.840 And it's starting to go down to meet the capital expenditures.

00:12:26.200 But combined, your capital requirement for the country is still very high.

00:12:31.460 So, your financing requirement is still the combination of the two roughly, right?

00:12:36.780 So, at that point, maybe I'm wrong.

00:12:38.380 Did I just do the math wrong?

00:12:39.440 It's $115 billion.

00:12:42.500 Yeah.

00:12:43.060 Plus, again, all those pension and all those others operating liabilities, the reconciliation amounts.

00:12:49.140 So, you're probably still up around $125, $130 billion.

00:12:53.620 It's interesting.

00:12:54.600 In financing requirements.

00:12:55.920 You just mentioned pensions as a liability, yet it shows up in this budget as an asset.

00:13:01.740 Yeah, it does.

00:13:02.620 It kicks around, right?

00:13:03.620 So, pension assets, you know, are sitting on the government's books on the balance sheet, right?

00:13:08.000 Yeah.

00:13:08.100 So, yeah.

00:13:09.440 Interesting.

00:13:10.220 It says, but, okay.

00:13:11.640 Yep.

00:13:11.880 So, the next one I had was capital investments.

00:13:15.580 So, this is the one where you see how capital investments from 2014-15, which are around $10 billion.

00:13:25.880 Wow.

00:13:26.200 It's bizarre how small it was, actually, when you look at it, are now kind of going to go up to $60 billion.

00:13:32.960 And they're going to stabilize at the $60 billion level.

00:13:36.520 So, you know, the plan is in the future up until 2030 from starting, you know, to 24 is to increase, you know, to the end of 2027 and then stay roughly around $60 billion a year.

00:13:53.040 So, doubling the projected capital investment.

00:13:57.880 Right.

00:13:58.620 Right.

00:13:58.640 Yeah.

00:13:58.940 And hopefully having, again, hopefully having our deficits go down.

00:14:03.580 So, it's interesting.

00:14:04.260 So, when we talk about this, it's almost like the headline, our generational investments, because people are calling this a generational budget.

00:14:12.280 Right.

00:14:12.560 Yeah, it's out to 2030, and quite frankly, they did a good job, you know, and I commend, they did an excellent job on writing this budget.

00:14:20.620 The guys who marketed this budget, put the marketing part of this budget together, did a really good job.

00:14:25.980 There's lots of charts on the $280 billion five-year spend in capital and expenditures.

00:14:32.300 Until you start to tie it into what that is, and that becomes the challenge.

00:14:37.500 So, the detail, you know, the devil's in the detail, so you start to break that number down, and you say, okay, you know, because I got excited.

00:14:44.360 You know, I was probably more excited at the beginning reading this budget than I was at the end.

00:14:49.540 It really did.

00:14:51.280 Yeah, it was.

00:14:51.920 It's funny, I was a little shocked, Paul, that you came out, we were sitting there, and you said, I'll be honest with you, I like the budget.

00:14:57.120 I don't dislike this budget, and I was like, wait, what just happened over there in that corner of the office?

00:15:01.600 No, no, I did, and I said it on a couple shows, you know, I was excited.

00:15:05.400 I had kind of predicted that they were going to try to spend out of it early on.

00:15:10.820 I thought that was the right thing to do, and I thought new programs and new initiatives that increase productivity of the country was really the way to go.

00:15:21.460 I was convinced that that was the direction they were going to go in, and so I was excited when I saw the announcement.

00:15:27.940 When I saw this chart, you know, housing spend $25 billion over four years, defense spend, security spending, $30 billion over five years.

00:15:38.800 I thought that was low.

00:15:40.060 $115 billion over five years for infrastructure, and $110 billion over five years for productivity and competitiveness.

00:15:47.940 You know, it's interesting, Paul, we found out in a previous show that defense and security, that $30 billion will cover things that you may already think are infrastructure.

00:15:57.960 So if you think it's tanks on the road, ships in the water, or guns in hand, it's not necessarily that.

00:16:04.440 It could be repairing roads between Petawawa and Ottawa, for example.

00:16:08.620 Yeah, the blend between infrastructure and security blend quite a bit, right?

00:16:13.800 But there's, you know, there's interesting articles today that are out that are talking about that you can't keep increasing your defense spend to save the country.

00:16:24.800 And what they mean is, are they going to cause an increase in GDP and productivity?

00:16:33.920 Right. Not necessarily, right?

00:16:36.500 Not necessarily, right?

00:16:37.600 So because defense is, it's a necessity.

00:16:40.300 And it's an expense on the books.

00:16:42.440 Exactly.

00:16:43.080 It puts people to work, yes, but those are people that would otherwise be on the dole, potentially, or supported in some other way financially by the government.

00:16:49.880 Right. And are you better to have to exploit them in an industry that is going to sell a product or, you know, export it abroad?

00:16:56.740 That's a great question.

00:16:57.780 And they're saying you are.

00:16:59.100 It's better to have people working in industries that actually make cars or make planes or make things.

00:17:05.840 Rather than make roads for Canada, rather than build airports or ports for Canada.

00:17:10.840 Exactly.

00:17:11.340 Those are job programs.

00:17:12.600 Those are make work projects, you know, that go into the country to keep people active.

00:17:16.400 And hopefully they go and they buy products with that money so that you're looking for the offshoot of the money you give them at that point.

00:17:23.020 Which is minimal in comparison to doing import business and export business on the whole.

00:17:30.620 So, you know, the employee, the company, everybody involved in the actual commerce and corporate version of this stand a better chance at longevity and, frankly, a better career.

00:17:42.960 Yes.

00:17:43.440 Yes.

00:17:44.320 Yeah.

00:17:44.640 But one of the things you have to do at that point, if you, you know, and some of this is a little challenging because if you skew too much to projects that are not GDP, that do not enhance GDP growth.

00:17:58.140 Okay.

00:17:58.660 Right.

00:17:59.080 And you are hoping for the offshoot spend.

00:18:01.880 So let's use an example.

00:18:03.700 You're paying the guy to build tanks.

00:18:05.800 Right.

00:18:06.020 The guy who he's getting paid, he's making a hundred thousand a year.

00:18:08.800 He goes and buys a home and then he actually, you know, vacations.

00:18:13.620 He starts to buy a car, but he, you know, he's buying all his materials for his home from China.

00:18:18.400 So he's shipping in containers to build his homes full of materials.

00:18:22.240 He's buying a car made abroad.

00:18:24.660 So he's not buying a car made here and he's vacationing in another country.

00:18:29.480 Yeah.

00:18:29.860 Right.

00:18:30.300 So quite frankly, his whole spend is being imported.

00:18:33.660 So that money is not.

00:18:35.060 It's not really staying in the country.

00:18:37.160 No, there's some things are his food and stuff like that.

00:18:39.560 He's doing his paying his insurance.

00:18:41.140 So there's some spends, but quite frankly, you know, if you're going to shift your government expenditure to too many infrastructure programs, then you have to say to yourself, I then need to almost reduce my number of imports.

00:18:57.000 So therefore, do I then create a tariff program to slow down the number of imports?

00:19:02.400 So then I, of course, but then you're being Trump, right?

00:19:05.940 At that point, you're, at that point, you're really shutting down business internationally.

00:19:10.680 Yeah.

00:19:11.000 Which is quite frankly, the Americans by, you know, if you look at what they do with their defense, with their trillion dollars spend on defense, you know, one of the reasons was the money was going all outside the country.

00:19:20.500 So, which wasn't helping him at all.

00:19:22.700 It was just clicking up deficits and it wasn't really making sense.

00:19:25.780 So he shuts all that down.

00:19:27.640 He internalizes it, stops importing.

00:19:30.500 And, you know, basically says, you know, I'll export only.

00:19:34.980 Okay.

00:19:35.660 Yeah.

00:19:36.080 Yeah.

00:19:36.600 I mean, I don't think we're, we have that punching power, but we don't, you know, it would be nice to be in that position.

00:19:42.560 But there is a balancing act on this slide.

00:19:45.100 That's all I'm trying to make.

00:19:46.140 Yeah.

00:19:46.300 It's not as simple as spend all your money on infrastructure and the country will be okay.

00:19:50.820 No, that makes, it makes perfect sense to me that if we're just spending money on our own house and our own pool again, that there has to be some means for us to create income against that.

00:20:00.520 Right.

00:20:00.820 You got it.

00:20:01.460 You got it.

00:20:02.120 So then, you know, so then the devil's in the details.

00:20:04.500 So, you know, as I mentioned earlier, so then we started to break down.

00:20:07.760 So now I'm going to use, I'm not going to use buckets again.

00:20:11.000 I'm going to, I'm going to use holes.

00:20:12.260 There's three holes, right?

00:20:13.360 So pretend we're golfing and we're on the first hole.

00:20:15.900 The first hole in the capital expense world are called baseline expenses.

00:20:21.020 Right.

00:20:21.660 So baseline expenses are expenses that have existed.

00:20:26.700 So if you look at the Trudeau area, these are expenses that have existed for.

00:20:32.320 A decade.

00:20:33.180 Yeah.

00:20:33.560 Five to 10 years.

00:20:34.420 Yeah.

00:20:34.580 So there are programs that, that he announced he got going on and quite frankly, they've been rolling.

00:20:41.760 So that's what I was curious when I started breaking down the budget, I started saying, okay, I get the accounting now.

00:20:48.260 So, you know, you know, you were seeing me with my, my handy blue pencil, right?

00:20:53.700 I was, you know, sitting there trying to figure out how he got to the, the, the capital expenditure numbers.

00:21:01.140 And I couldn't.

00:21:02.500 Right.

00:21:02.820 Right.

00:21:03.120 And I thought, and it's funny because Christophe came to me and he was trying to, and he said, well, it's the problem because it's a reconciliation between cash and accruing, accrual accounting.

00:21:13.320 Right.

00:21:13.900 And I said, oh, come on, I got to figure this out.

00:21:16.000 So I kept going and I did figure it out.

00:21:17.980 And I, what you have to do is you have to add up the three capital expense, I, uh, holes.

00:21:25.300 Oh, okay.

00:21:25.780 So the first hole, the second hole and the third hole.

00:21:28.040 So.

00:21:28.100 And those become your baseline spending, they become your baseline capital expense.

00:21:33.660 No.

00:21:33.940 So they become your total capital, uh, capital expenditures.

00:21:38.160 So I understand all three of them, hole one plus hole two plus hole three are the actual expenditures.

00:21:44.780 Hole two, which is a very simple one are basically the capital expenditures that happened after the 20, 2024 budget.

00:21:54.700 Okay.

00:21:55.300 So, and these happen in the stuff.

00:21:57.200 Yeah.

00:21:57.460 The federal economic statements from, uh, 2025 and 2020, all those policy changes that are in there up until now, this budget.

00:22:07.300 Okay.

00:22:07.700 Are basically what we call, they, they call them FES, 2024 fall economic statement, 2024.

00:22:16.140 So these are the policy changes.

00:22:17.860 Right.

00:22:18.100 So these are kind of like the adjustments that happened.

00:22:20.160 So that's hole two and then hole three, um, which is the ones that are new in the 2025 budget.

00:22:28.540 Okay.

00:22:29.200 Right.

00:22:29.520 So we went through them on our show last.

00:22:31.800 Which really, frankly, it doesn't look like a lot of new stuff in this budget.

00:22:36.340 Really?

00:22:36.740 Uh, in this budget, there's about nine.

00:22:39.980 I mean, there's about nine capital projects that were announced, which we'll go through.

00:22:44.300 We'll take a look at those.

00:22:45.100 Okay.

00:22:45.500 But, okay.

00:22:46.140 So let's go back from it.

00:22:47.260 Hole one.

00:22:48.060 Yeah.

00:22:48.580 You know, so we're, we're golfing, you know, we're going to the first tee.

00:22:51.460 We're driving for hole one.

00:22:53.240 The baseline capital expenditures that we've seen from five to 10 years in the Trudeau era basically have just been increased.

00:23:01.760 So, and that makes up, uh, most, almost 60% to 70% of the total capital expenditures.

00:23:12.440 So these are programs that existed.

00:23:14.660 So this is not new investment with new ideas and new innovation.

00:23:18.280 This is paying for what's already.

00:23:21.920 Some of those programs were announced, quite frankly, in lump sum, and we've just increased the expenditure in the year.

00:23:27.560 So for example, I took a look at, uh, and you'll see on the slide, I took a look at these expenditures from 2025 to 2027.

00:23:36.160 So, um, if you want to take, uh, let's take, let's go through them.

00:23:42.500 Sure.

00:23:42.840 And, you know, I'm just going to focus on 2027.

00:23:46.420 If I think there's a relevant increase, um, and we'll, we'll pick a few.

00:23:50.700 Yeah.

00:23:50.980 Let's just take a few and go through them.

00:23:52.660 And then I think people will get the feeling for them.

00:23:55.380 And I hope, uh, our listeners, listeners at home take the time and go through the list.

00:24:00.340 There's 20 of them.

00:24:01.420 There's 20 programs.

00:24:02.660 I recognize most of them to tell you the truth.

00:24:05.420 Dale sounded familiar.

00:24:07.120 I had heard them in previous budgets.

00:24:09.200 Yeah, I'd heard them.

00:24:09.740 Maybe renamed a little.

00:24:10.960 Yeah.

00:24:11.460 Yeah.

00:24:12.200 By the way, this, this whole document will be available at tplmedia.ca.

00:24:16.680 So, uh, when you look at, uh, any of these episodes, take a look for a copy of the PDF.

00:24:22.100 It's really well done and, uh, very interesting.

00:24:25.380 So the first one's the Canada Community Building Fund.

00:24:29.640 And they allocated the same as they did last year.

00:24:32.860 They allocated $2.5 billion to the 2027 budget.

00:24:38.720 Uh, the fund supports strategic local infrastructure investments, including roads and bridges, public

00:24:43.460 transit, drinking water, uh, wastewater systems, solid waste management, and recreational facilities.

00:24:48.900 It's a long-term fund.

00:24:50.680 Yeah.

00:24:51.140 This has been around forever.

00:24:52.200 Uh, community centers, roads, like you said, it's kind of the catch-all.

00:24:56.080 Yeah.

00:24:56.200 It's one of those funds they created years ago.

00:24:58.200 They put a bunch of money into it.

00:24:59.860 They, uh, the team at, uh, federal government sits around a table and they basically smatter it and then they transfer it into the communities.

00:25:07.580 And they, these are the ones that help the provinces stay afloat.

00:25:11.500 That basically, uh, or, or, uh, keep the, the provinces flushing.

00:25:17.140 Uh, another one that you pointed out to me was investing in Canada infrastructure program.

00:25:22.740 This is a big expense item.

00:25:25.640 Yeah, $3.1 billion this year in the 2027 budget, up, uh, about $400 million from 2026.

00:25:34.620 And, uh, so it's grown, it's growing.

00:25:37.420 And quite frankly, it's growing at about $400,000 a year in growth, $400 million a year in growth.

00:25:43.200 Um, you know.

00:25:45.520 So this is the partnership, uh, program with provinces, public transit, green infrastructure, community culture, and recreation, and rural and northern development.

00:25:54.060 Man, recreation gets an awful lot of funding in different programs here, huh?

00:25:58.860 Yeah, it seems to, it seems to pop up.

00:26:01.360 You know, one of the, one of the recommendations that I would make, you know, if they're going to try to clean up all their programs and policies, I know these have been allocated into funds for accounting purposes.

00:26:11.620 So what they do is they set up, uh, accounts and then they try to track what's happening through those.

00:26:17.320 You know, a great thing would be to actually split these up into funding programs.

00:26:22.820 And then actually track them through and start to talk about how beneficial they are and what their outcomes are.

00:26:29.700 Yeah.

00:26:30.120 Give them, give them some markers, like basic targets.

00:26:33.060 Say, you know, this one's going to increase productivity or this one's going to build a road that's going to go to a mine that's going to one day produce.

00:26:40.840 Like, it'd be nice to see how it ties into the.

00:26:43.480 If it's urban planning, fantastic.

00:26:45.840 Because we don't seem to do enough of that, frankly.

00:26:47.940 You know, God bless urban planners, but with, uh, short-term governments like we have in a democracy, things change so dramatically from, from government to government.

00:26:57.240 So, uh, if that's what it goes toward, fantastic.

00:27:02.600 I mean, that's definitely something that we need, but, uh, but it needs to be managed.

00:27:08.080 Yeah, it's got to be managed because now in this critical time, when you're taking the leap to increase these numbers, like we have an increase, these, uh, budget items, you really have to be careful because you're, now you have to actually track them through and say, is this program sustainable?

00:27:25.100 Is it not sustainable?

00:27:26.800 Is it actually, is it reporting?

00:27:28.080 Is it reporting so many programs seem to go into the vapor?

00:27:31.120 Exactly.

00:27:31.660 So this is the challenge because you don't want to, number one, you don't want to have a program go sideways on you because then that'll hurt your credibility and you want to be able to actively pivot when one program's not working.

00:27:42.700 Right.

00:27:43.020 Yeah.

00:27:43.300 So more than ever, I think, and, you know, nowadays with, you know, social media and everything happened, I don't think you can really get away with not like people are actively in these programs.

00:27:53.680 So you can do that for a while, but everything comes out in the wash, right?

00:27:57.600 So, but I do think some, uh, a little bit of oversight on, on this kind of money, um, in this many categories, because there's a lot of silos underneath, underneath each of these.

00:28:08.900 Oh yeah.

00:28:09.440 Uh, what's another one that, uh, caught your attention?

00:28:12.940 Another one, uh, the innovation, uh, the foundation of innovation, uh, Canada foundation of innovation caught my, my, uh, my curiosity.

00:28:23.680 Oh, and the strategic innovation fund.

00:28:25.900 I think that's one you mentioned too, Mike.

00:28:27.640 Yeah.

00:28:28.160 Yeah.

00:28:28.540 The, uh, the strategic innovation fund provide, this was, uh, it's very, what I find difficult about this one, Paul, and I'll tell you the, uh, onset is once again, measurement of success.

00:28:40.960 This, the strategic innovation fund provides large scale funding to Canadian businesses and industries to support high impact projects that drive innovation, clean growth, and economic transformation.

00:28:51.820 We want everything to be clean.

00:28:53.020 I noticed, uh, with funding increasing from 1.7 billion to 2.9 billion, the SIF targets projects in advanced manufacturing.

00:29:01.680 Yeah.

00:29:02.560 Okay.

00:29:03.060 Let's enter the marketplace of manufacturing, clean technology.

00:29:06.620 Once again, we're being very clean life sciences.

00:29:09.680 Okay.

00:29:10.200 That's health and, and, uh, and living and, uh, industrial transformation.

00:29:14.860 Um, this, this feels to me like it, it could end up in the ether, a lot of this money, and it's a very big increase.

00:29:24.360 Yeah, it is a big increase.

00:29:25.800 Very important if you do it right.

00:29:27.800 Yeah.

00:29:28.180 You know, this is, we talked about yesterday on the operating expense show.

00:29:31.740 We're going to go out and spend $260 million in 2027 to find people abroad who have specific skill sets to build.

00:29:41.340 So you have to give them the resources to do that.

00:29:43.500 So things like strategic innovation funds, if you do them well, there are countries that are very good at it.

00:29:48.760 You know, uh, uh, I think, uh, Norway, I think is very good at it.

00:29:53.780 There's some countries that do it really well.

00:29:55.440 And quite frankly, you know, they identify projects, they find people, they bring engineers, they bring, uh, scientists, biologists, you know, they bring all those people in and then they set them loose on a specific project to advance whatever they want in their country so they can sell it.

00:30:13.780 I was going to say that the net result of it is a pharmaceutical breakthrough or a patent that does benefit the economy overall.

00:30:23.200 Yes.

00:30:23.460 That's the end result.

00:30:24.580 There's a product.

00:30:25.600 The other one, maybe walk me through this one.

00:30:27.320 Other provincial, territorial, and municipal infrastructure investments.

00:30:30.160 Under the Investing in Canada plan, the federal government supports more than $180 billion in infrastructure over 12 years.

00:30:37.020 Uh, public transit, green infrastructure, boy, oh boy, uh, social infrastructure, trade corridors, which is obviously, uh, something that we'll need to do for, uh, doing trade with other countries.

00:30:48.660 Uh, we can't just cross the border and rural and Northern development.

00:30:52.300 And these contributions are designed to improve community resilience, reduce carbon emissions, Paul, and strengthen regional economies through cooperative investments with other levels of government.

00:31:03.860 Take me through that.

00:31:04.700 Yeah.

00:31:05.300 Yeah.

00:31:05.700 So, uh, 4.3 billion for 2027.

00:31:09.800 So, uh, it's went up, uh, about a billion dollars.

00:31:12.360 Yeah.

00:31:12.580 This is a big, this is a big push.

00:31:14.300 So, again, you know, strategic infrastructure is great.

00:31:18.020 So, if you have, you know, always, you have a roading infrastructure that you have to fix, and then you have strategic infrastructure.

00:31:25.720 So, you know, if you're going up north and you're going to create infrastructure to build homes because you want to move people up there to build mines and you need workers, it makes sense.

00:31:35.420 Right.

00:31:35.860 Right.

00:31:36.080 But those are the things you have to plan.

00:31:38.200 Like, those are the things, and those are the things, quite frankly, we should be more trans, we should be talking about more.

00:31:44.080 You know, Australia did a good job of that.

00:31:45.580 We mentioned on the show, uh, the second show.

00:31:48.020 They built mining communities.

00:31:49.360 They built infrastructure that made it appealing for people to be there.

00:31:52.500 They created incentives for the, for the corporations, uh, which then brought investment because it was so favorable for the, for, for a risky industry in some cases, mining, for example, it's, you have to have the government behind you to get investors to buy in as well.

00:32:08.920 Yeah.

00:32:09.140 They said, listen, we think there's rare earth minerals in the hills.

00:32:12.100 So they basically went out, built communities and they moved people there.

00:32:15.440 In that case, they said behind that huge, enormous rock over there on those flatlands.

00:32:20.400 Uh, another one that got me was the shred credits, um, tax incentives.

00:32:25.740 This is interesting because to me, they're, they're providing over 5 billion in tax credits.

00:32:31.580 Tax credits are tied to somebody else's money going into this.

00:32:37.560 This is not grant money.

00:32:38.980 Yeah.

00:32:39.660 Is this a lofty number to expect corporations to get out there to advance, uh, technology?

00:32:44.840 5 billion?

00:32:45.260 Yeah.

00:32:45.860 Yeah.

00:32:46.620 Yeah.

00:32:46.960 I think it's, you know, in this environment.

00:32:50.400 Which, which, you know, with everything going on in Canada right now, I think this is a little bit of a aggressive, a definitely aggressive number.

00:32:58.200 Um, is it going to go to the right people at the right time in the right places?

00:33:02.820 Traditionally, it hasn't.

00:33:03.920 That's the challenge.

00:33:04.820 It tends to go to companies that need a tax break.

00:33:08.500 Yeah.

00:33:09.240 Yeah.

00:33:09.420 That's, it's, it's, it hasn't always been worth.

00:33:10.680 So that means they're somewhat profitable.

00:33:12.820 Okay.

00:33:13.160 That's great.

00:33:13.700 If you're, if you're, uh, um, Apotex or somebody like that, who's developing it, but you probably also have the research funding in place to do that.

00:33:22.620 Um, so I don't think the right companies get this.

00:33:26.460 And I wonder if maybe we would develop younger companies better by actually just investing this as grants, but.

00:33:33.500 Yeah.

00:33:34.020 Or, or strategically, uh, determining again, that's direction, right?

00:33:39.040 We, we, you have to point that in the direction you want to go.

00:33:41.960 Makes sense, yeah.

00:33:42.600 And then you have to create the science that actually, uh, moves that industry along and makes it successful.

00:33:48.280 So I think, again, it comes down to direction and accountability.

00:33:52.300 Okay.

00:33:52.580 I'm not going to drag you through too many more of these.

00:33:54.120 I have one more that I wanted to ask you about.

00:33:56.000 You got it.

00:33:56.460 Uh, support for battery manufacturing.

00:33:58.500 Now, correct me if I'm wrong.

00:34:00.660 A hundred and, uh, 169.4 million investment in Linamar Corporation to expand AV parts and semiconductor packaging and up to $10 billion in production subsidies.

00:34:10.600 For key industry partners like Stellantis, they're gone.

00:34:14.420 Yeah.

00:34:14.600 LG Energy has yet to set up over $46 billion in EV supply chain investments.

00:34:20.080 Am I wrong?

00:34:21.300 Is this EV thing not dead?

00:34:24.980 Stellantis is gone.

00:34:26.340 The car manufacturers that manufacture electric cars are leaving Canada.

00:34:30.500 What is this?

00:34:31.920 What are we doing here?

00:34:33.780 I don't think we know.

00:34:35.340 Honestly, I think we thought, I think it was actually all in the making when this budget,

00:34:39.560 is they were creating this budget.

00:34:41.180 And I think all these new developments that happened over the last month, I just think given everything they had on there, you can remember this team, this team putting the budget together.

00:34:50.580 They've been at it for months.

00:34:51.580 Well, they've been at it for months and they've been converting cash accounting to accrual accounting.

00:34:55.280 They've had to go back, you know, five, 10 years.

00:34:57.700 They've had to retrofit all their books and then create a whole new scheme.

00:35:01.420 So it probably is all these.

00:35:03.000 I can only imagine the amount of work and the amount of labor these people had to go through. 0.75

00:35:07.680 It's amazing that they got it done.

00:35:09.440 It really is.

00:35:10.460 Underneath each of these programs are many programs.

00:35:15.920 There are many programs.

00:35:16.940 Well, there's sub layers of all these programs and there's the way to apply.

00:35:20.400 And, you know, this goes on for pages and pages and pages.

00:35:23.720 But, you know, at the end of the day for 2027, so we talked about capital budget in 2027 of $56.6 billion, $48.5 billion are projects that are baseline or whole one.

00:35:43.120 So they existed.

00:35:45.240 This is two-thirds of the budget roughly?

00:35:47.360 Yeah, well, no more than that, quite frankly, because, yeah, 80.

00:35:53.800 Oh, that's right.

00:35:54.920 Yeah, 80%.

00:35:55.740 Yeah, four-fifths.

00:35:57.000 But so quite frankly, it's...

00:35:58.960 Oh, my God, it's four-fifths of the budget.

00:36:00.780 We really aren't adding any new stuff to this budget and it's enormous.

00:36:05.420 How are we here?

00:36:07.680 We added, so what we did is we increased the line items of existing baseline projects.

00:36:12.480 So if there was an infrastructure program that existed, we said we need more infrastructure.

00:36:19.380 They added more money to it.

00:36:20.360 Put more money into that program.

00:36:22.900 My concern, here's my concern with that, and it's, if this was working really efficiently and we were knocking it out of the park and doing a great job on all these items, whether it be infrastructure, strategic innovation, shred, battery manufacturing, housing, then I'd say, great.

00:36:41.540 Keep those rolling, put more money into them.

00:36:44.100 But they've been sputtering.

00:36:46.340 Yeah.

00:36:46.840 So, you know, I guess my next question, which is, which, you know, I mentioned on the show yesterday is where I don't really understand where the opposition right now is not talking about this.

00:36:58.980 It's a great question.

00:37:00.060 I mean, not in this detail for certain.

00:37:01.900 I mean...

00:37:02.900 Well, why don't they talk about guardrails and putting on reporting and accountability? 0.70

00:37:06.820 You know, you can say, I want to vote down the budget, and I know I get why they're doing that.

00:37:13.240 I understand, you know, I don't like this budget, whether the bloc or the conservatives.

00:37:18.000 Did you put up any alternatives on how to monitor the budget?

00:37:22.660 Or even which of these programs you'd like to see changed?

00:37:27.120 Or how do we determine how they're working?

00:37:31.760 In this day and age, with the technological developments and the things people can do, whether it be AI, all the things you can do to map, track, analyze, you should be able to quickly get across this budget and say, break this budget down and alter the components, measure it, and tell me which one's working based on the targets I set.

00:37:51.300 I'm sure that's an easy task, actually.

00:37:55.880 That's a great point, Paul.

00:37:57.040 Why don't we start at that spot rather than voting this down?

00:38:00.600 Yeah, exactly.

00:38:01.240 And who would argue with that?

00:38:02.420 How do you argue about...

00:38:03.640 So how do they...

00:38:04.320 I guess the question I'd have, if I was sitting on the other side and I was listening to this, I'd say, I like the budget.

00:38:10.220 I don't...

00:38:10.740 You know, I like the fact that they're trying to spend and they're trying to increase investment.

00:38:15.800 Tell me how we track it.

00:38:17.600 Let's sit down together and figure out how do we make sure that we identify key initiatives, track them, report on them, and keep driving to grow the country.

00:38:26.800 That's what I'm...

00:38:27.680 Is there a lack of ROI discussion in this budget?

00:38:33.700 Well, I think it's not just ROI.

00:38:35.780 I think it's, quite frankly, it's a number of target indicators, key performance indicators that you should have in place.

00:38:42.980 And you should publicly talk about them.

00:38:45.100 I wonder if that's part of the problem here.

00:38:47.060 I mean, this might have been better received if it was better explained.

00:38:52.440 You know, if the PM came out and said, look, we're going to do things a little differently.

00:38:59.980 The budget's been delayed.

00:39:02.000 We're going to change the way that we do this.

00:39:03.740 And here's why we're doing it.

00:39:05.540 Here's what you're going to expect.

00:39:07.300 We're not going to spend huge money on a new rocket ship program here in Canada.

00:39:12.580 We're going to pay for what we've already promised properly for the first time and catch up.

00:39:17.780 If that was the explanation that I was given, I think I'd, even as part of the opposition, I'd be more interested in participating in that.

00:39:28.340 Yeah.

00:39:28.560 And here's how I'm going to tie it.

00:39:30.240 Here's the indicators that I'm going to tie it back to, the growth indicators.

00:39:36.080 And here's how each of the programs tie in, right?

00:39:39.520 Show me the path.

00:39:40.360 And I think, I think you're right.

00:39:41.640 Sometimes I think it is a communication.

00:39:43.860 Like, it feels like they think that we already know what they're doing.

00:39:47.560 Right.

00:39:48.280 Or, or we don't care.

00:39:49.740 But we, I think people do care.

00:39:52.600 Like, you know, the amount of people that are talking to me about the budget on the weekend and talk as I move around.

00:39:57.860 And they're, they're, they're asking the question.

00:40:00.080 They don't understand probably why we started these shows is because the number of people who are having that conversation, it's not a small number.

00:40:07.780 And what, what, this was the, what, the most downloaded budget in the history of budgets.

00:40:12.500 It's so funny because we're lucky we have Paul.

00:40:15.760 And so I noticed on that day, all the PDFs being printed out and it's 400 pages and we're going, wait, wait, wait, hold on, hold on.

00:40:22.940 But we all kind of came to you right away saying, why so much?

00:40:29.620 And I remember your, your reaction was, I don't know, but there's something to this.

00:40:35.600 There's something different.

00:40:36.400 And sure enough, it is.

00:40:37.260 We've changed accounting systems.

00:40:39.140 Yeah.

00:40:39.860 Well, in October we had, you know, he had talked about it, quite frankly, you know, it was a mention.

00:40:45.640 I don't, I don't know.

00:40:46.680 Yeah, it's coming.

00:40:47.420 Right.

00:40:47.740 And we were like, okay, you know, and the media hit on it quickly.

00:40:51.100 It was a one day story and then disappeared.

00:40:53.060 I don't think they've actually, the mainstream media has really come back on it.

00:40:56.380 I don't think they've just, they've just glazed over it.

00:40:58.360 I have to tell you, if you're watching this, you probably share with a friend because this is discussion that I'm not hearing anywhere.

00:41:04.520 Just at the basics of how this budget is arrived at.

00:41:08.140 Well, and I think it's a little bit of a disservice sometimes for them to just say it's a terrible budget.

00:41:12.460 Well, yeah.

00:41:13.000 They don't know, quite frankly.

00:41:14.120 They haven't asked the question.

00:41:15.020 I don't think, I don't think in the two non-confidence votes we had, I think they would have been better served to ask for some things to be highlighted and agreed upon versus just saying no.

00:41:26.980 And then, you know, so then if the third one goes through and the budget passes because, you know, the NDP abstains or whatever, you're not really going to know because you didn't ask for anything, anything constructive to be changed.

00:41:39.880 Also, I don't see the opposition asking questions about what this or that means or challenging them on, this is not a new program.

00:41:47.260 Yeah.

00:41:47.440 Because at that point, it gives the government a chance to say, no, we know we're doing this and we're increasing it in this way and we're staying the course.

00:41:55.420 Yeah.

00:41:55.640 And it didn't work.

00:41:56.820 Again, the opposition, if you're in Ottawa and you're there every day, you should know which programs are.

00:42:02.940 Are operating properly.

00:42:04.140 If you don't know which of these programs, there's 20 programs in whole one, the baseline program.

00:42:09.080 If you don't have a clue which one is working and not working, that's a problem.

00:42:14.000 Yeah.

00:42:14.180 You're not asking the right questions, right?

00:42:16.140 Yeah.

00:42:16.720 You're just opposing.

00:42:18.360 Yeah.

00:42:18.980 So second hole. 0.98

00:42:20.620 So, you know, I've, you know, I'm moving on to the second hole.

00:42:25.640 I'm taking my clubs.

00:42:26.820 I'm driving over to the second hole.

00:42:28.160 Sorry, I took so many swings on the last hole.

00:42:29.980 Yeah, that's all right.

00:42:30.760 I'm not going to say what the score was.

00:42:32.220 And, you know, so this one only has three items in it.

00:42:37.760 And they're very small.

00:42:38.880 Well, the first one's not very small, but this is the adjustment that happens in the federal economic statements from 2024 to the current budget.

00:42:49.240 What does that mean?

00:42:49.960 So when they make a policy, so, you know, they do vote things in, you know, after the 2024 budget was dropped, they made changes, right?

00:42:59.740 There's policies, there's bills that get passed.

00:43:02.720 So quite frankly, they allocate monies to them and they have to go somewhere.

00:43:06.940 So they have to adjust the budgets to accommodate for the monies they allocate.

00:43:11.600 Most governments, unfortunately, don't find it in another place.

00:43:14.960 They add on.

00:43:15.880 So that's why, quite frankly, you know, you hear it all the time on different shows and, you know, very seldom do federal budgets end up being what they say they are.

00:43:27.380 When they actually come in as actuals, they tend to be much higher.

00:43:30.920 Now, in this one, I hope we're not much higher because it's a pretty high budget.

00:43:34.360 But, you know, there's really two items.

00:43:38.040 And so there's the funding for the high-speed rail.

00:43:44.580 I always laugh when I hear that because it's been on the books for years.

00:43:48.420 So who's using the not high-speed rail right now?

00:43:51.720 How many people?

00:43:53.060 Nobody.

00:43:53.580 Nobody.

00:43:54.060 Yeah, it's pretty quiet.

00:43:55.280 So they want to spend $2 billion.

00:43:57.160 They actually, which is interesting, when they said they've actually spent $1 billion or $900 million in 2026.

00:44:07.860 So I didn't even know they were doing that.

00:44:09.980 Well, they got as far as Kingston, I guess.

00:44:15.480 What's it?

00:44:15.780 Between Toronto and Ottawa? 0.99

00:44:17.920 This is the most ridiculous idea. 0.99

00:44:19.820 Quebec, yeah. 0.95

00:44:20.620 I know I'm supposed to stay professional during these episodes, Paul, but that one I don't understand.

00:44:24.380 Well, somewhere along the way, $900 million went into something this year, I assume.

00:44:31.460 Did you invoice them for anything?

00:44:32.900 I didn't.

00:44:33.440 No, no, I didn't.

00:44:34.620 So 2027, they're talking about $1.1 billion.

00:44:38.720 So, you know, there is a plan afoot to spend $2 billion on the speed rail or the high-speed rail.

00:44:46.080 So that, I don't know.

00:44:47.780 Let's see.

00:44:48.500 At the end of 2027, is there going to be a new rail?

00:44:51.620 We'll be able to sell that off to the same guys who bought our 407.

00:44:54.980 Yeah.

00:44:56.000 Well, if it's there.

00:44:57.400 At a loss.

00:44:58.160 Yeah.

00:44:58.740 So then this was interesting.

00:45:01.320 There's extending mineral exploration tax credit, $100 million.

00:45:07.440 Okay.

00:45:08.020 So may I just stop there for one moment?

00:45:10.220 We talk a lot about the resources we have in mining in Canada.

00:45:19.240 Why so little money put toward getting it out of the ground?

00:45:24.080 They're not talking a lot about it.

00:45:25.860 It's interesting.

00:45:26.640 You know, specifically, there are some programs.

00:45:29.220 So I'm not saying they're not.

00:45:30.420 They have infrastructure programs that can be used for mining, whether it be roads.

00:45:34.460 And they have housing.

00:45:35.320 But they're not, you know, specific.

00:45:37.940 But you need the actual mine you need.

00:45:40.020 Yeah, exactly.

00:45:40.820 But that is interesting.

00:45:42.180 But they're not really.

00:45:44.000 Again, that's where I struggle a little bit with some of the thinking on this budget.

00:45:49.440 Because if you're, you know, all our lives we've heard mining, mining.

00:45:54.360 We're mineral rich.

00:45:56.560 Okay.

00:45:57.260 Exactly.

00:45:57.560 We're mineral rich.

00:45:58.860 You know, again, I don't mean to use Australia again.

00:46:01.980 But, you know, they said they're mineral rich.

00:46:04.200 And then they went out and set up programs and got the minerals.

00:46:07.280 They also said that they had rare earth minerals.

00:46:10.920 And they did.

00:46:11.480 And we said we had rare earth minerals and then changed it to critical minerals.

00:46:15.220 Yeah, critical minerals.

00:46:15.940 Yeah.

00:46:16.040 We started off at rare and we ended up at critical, right?

00:46:18.600 So it makes me wonder, like, why so little attention on this industry overall?

00:46:24.300 You know, I don't know.

00:46:25.720 It's honestly, it's disappeared.

00:46:27.000 I would, you know, it's a great question.

00:46:29.300 We're going to do some future shows on it.

00:46:31.240 And I think what we need to do now is we need to actually break down critical minerals and break down what we do have and start to ask the questions.

00:46:40.000 I think it's a great question.

00:46:41.180 And learn.

00:46:42.240 I think it's a question, you know, I've always, you know, when you're sitting in a bar having a drink and people talk about Canada, the first thing almost everyone says is, well, we have lots of lumber, you know.

00:46:53.620 Okay.

00:46:54.640 We have a lot of critical minerals.

00:46:56.120 We do?

00:46:56.860 Oh.

00:46:57.200 Okay.

00:46:57.980 Right.

00:46:58.420 So we're land rich and mineral rich.

00:47:00.920 But we're not digging any of it out of the ground.

00:47:03.000 I understand there's a lot of red tape in that industry.

00:47:05.580 Yeah.

00:47:06.140 I get it.

00:47:07.080 Why do you think there's a lot of red tape in that industry?

00:47:09.560 I don't know.

00:47:10.180 I'll tell you.

00:47:10.820 It's to keep it honest.

00:47:12.340 Yeah.

00:47:12.580 Because I think that there's a lot of risk involved in mining.

00:47:17.700 And so while we might be the richest in minerals and mining, we don't know that.

00:47:24.440 And so we're also the richest in risk.

00:47:26.980 Yeah.

00:47:27.400 Oh, yeah.

00:47:27.740 That's, you know, any mining has a lot of risk.

00:47:31.360 Yeah.

00:47:31.920 Yeah.

00:47:32.240 You dig a hole.

00:47:33.060 You hope that that hole you dug, which you found in it, has the same thing 10 feet away.

00:47:37.640 I'm not going to lie to you.

00:47:38.600 I found a bolt in the backyard this weekend, Paul, digging.

00:47:41.180 And I'm going to need a little bit of investment money to go deeper.

00:47:45.400 All right.

00:47:45.680 So you're on par last hole.

00:47:48.300 So we're moving on to hole three, which is basically this is the budget, right?

00:47:54.540 This is what's in budget 2025.

00:47:57.260 And so these are the nine areas I talked to you about.

00:48:02.240 And the first one we talked about in previous shows is the generational infrastructure.

00:48:06.600 So that's $2.3 billion for 2027.

00:48:09.880 Protecting workers and transforming Canada's industries, equipping companies with gross

00:48:16.460 and diversification is $800 million.

00:48:19.680 A new trade infrastructure.

00:48:21.940 So that's $0.7 million.

00:48:23.600 That's ports.

00:48:24.680 Remember, that was the one.

00:48:25.680 Oh, yeah, that's right.

00:48:26.140 With the ports.

00:48:27.540 The very distant projects.

00:48:28.880 The corridors.

00:48:29.840 Yeah.

00:48:30.840 Once again, the corridors thing makes sense to me.

00:48:33.620 Yeah, it does to me too.

00:48:34.340 If we're going to do business elsewhere, I get it.

00:48:36.040 The Arctic, you know, the Arctic, all those places.

00:48:38.640 It makes sense to me.

00:48:39.340 Sovereignty, frankly, a little protection up there and some new relationships.

00:48:43.460 It does.

00:48:44.480 Strengthening First Nations infrastructure, financing.

00:48:47.460 And I know this one gets you every time.

00:48:49.060 And access clean water.

00:48:50.800 I know that one drives you crazy.

00:48:51.960 That's $700 million.

00:48:52.820 I just think that everybody.

00:48:54.200 It's been so many years of trying to get clean water.

00:48:56.380 I don't understand.

00:48:57.560 Yeah.

00:48:57.860 We really need to look into that.

00:48:59.540 No, no.

00:49:00.000 I'm with you.

00:49:00.480 And it does sound, I think it's just one that you can't say no to, right?

00:49:04.340 Right.

00:49:04.660 So every time you say, make sure people get clean water.

00:49:07.140 Yeah.

00:49:07.620 I'm with you.

00:49:08.360 It's time to move on at some point here, right?

00:49:10.440 And figure it out.

00:49:13.580 Rebuilding, renaming, and reinvesting in Canadian Armed Forces.

00:49:16.500 So this one's a head-scratcher to me every single time, I got to admit.

00:49:21.680 Because I know, you know, we had $10 billion in the operating expenses on top of our existing.

00:49:29.540 So for everyone, you know, we talked about it on the second show.

00:49:33.900 There's standing expenses in government.

00:49:35.880 So that's the $27, $30 billion we spend on the military.

00:49:39.940 Then we said this year we're going to spend more money, so we added it as a project to go another $10 billion, basically, in operating expenses.

00:49:47.600 And then we put $800 million aside for capital items.

00:49:53.640 So these are items that they want to capitalize.

00:49:56.560 They're assets.

00:49:57.360 They're things that are going to have a life over five years.

00:50:01.560 Okay.

00:50:02.020 So, you know, I found that interesting.

00:50:04.100 So I know we're in a big push to recruit people and get things off the ground and move.

00:50:08.500 But I thought this number would be bigger.

00:50:10.680 I really did.

00:50:11.460 It seems really small.

00:50:12.700 The other thing is renaming it.

00:50:14.280 That's a shocker to me.

00:50:18.020 Canadian Armed Forces being renamed seems like, well, it seems like what they've done with the budget.

00:50:25.620 They've renamed it.

00:50:26.420 They've reframed it.

00:50:27.260 They've given it at a different spin.

00:50:29.480 But I think that we need more than a different spin.

00:50:32.820 Yes, I agree.

00:50:34.140 There is $200 million.

00:50:35.600 I'm so sorry.

00:50:36.540 What?

00:50:36.760 I'll dig into it more, but I haven't found what that is.

00:50:40.600 No, Paul, you've got to find that $200 million because we know where that's going.

00:50:44.880 That's that rounding error.

00:50:46.320 That's that rounding error.

00:50:47.960 That's a poor accountant sitting there and goes, I'm $200 off.

00:50:51.920 You know what we really need is a productivity super deduction at this point.

00:50:56.880 What in God's name is that?

00:50:59.020 Well, that's that.

00:51:00.020 Remember those super deductions that we had where you could expense your equipment faster?

00:51:08.580 Oh, I understand.

00:51:10.060 That's all that.

00:51:10.440 Yeah.

00:51:10.560 Okay.

00:51:11.040 Got you.

00:51:11.400 That's all that.

00:51:11.900 But it's funny you say that because it's $300 million.

00:51:16.280 I don't know what that's doing.

00:51:17.640 So that one's got me nervous.

00:51:19.200 The smaller the number, the more nervous I become, Paul, because that just sounds like

00:51:23.160 it's going away.

00:51:24.140 Well, here's the interesting thing.

00:51:25.900 So all those five chapters that we went through yesterday, which we went through the operating

00:51:30.700 expenses for the most part, when we come to the capital expenses, these are them.

00:51:34.820 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

00:51:38.780 And one of them is other.

00:51:40.000 And the other one is a super deduction.

00:51:42.180 Yeah.

00:51:42.620 So those are the nine I mentioned.

00:51:44.040 Yeah.

00:51:44.340 And then launching Build Canada Homes.

00:51:48.340 So that's the 1.8 for 2027.

00:51:51.480 That's the Antibiul. 0.80

00:51:52.980 That's creating the program.

00:51:54.900 Well, that's them building housing. 1.00

00:51:57.540 So they remember that was when they announced her.

00:51:59.620 So that's them going out.

00:52:01.100 Them.

00:52:01.720 Sorry.

00:52:02.200 Sorry, federal government.

00:52:03.100 That's the Canadian government.

00:52:04.820 Going out through her program and building whatever homes, apartments, whatever they want. 0.93

00:52:11.600 So that's them building.

00:52:12.940 So, you know, they said that they would to speed up affordable housing.

00:52:17.200 They would, they would do that.

00:52:20.060 Well, look at this, Paul.

00:52:22.580 Here we are.

00:52:23.780 Yes.

00:52:24.560 A summary of capital expenditures.

00:52:26.560 Now, this is interesting in the sense that 2025, we're already 32.2 in.

00:52:34.520 Well, no, 26.

00:52:38.060 So 25 is done.

00:52:40.200 We spent.

00:52:40.540 So remember, we never got an accounting for 2025.

00:52:45.060 So this is just a nefarious number outside of what we've spent that we're not sure of yet.

00:52:51.080 No, that's done.

00:52:52.240 Okay.

00:52:52.640 That's done.

00:52:53.200 That's already been spent.

00:52:54.260 So look at it this way.

00:52:56.000 Remember, the government was changing, you know, all the elections and everything.

00:53:00.040 Which is coasted for the better part of six months, right?

00:53:02.460 So we really never, 2025 was over, really never talked about it.

00:53:07.180 Because it ended in 2020, March 31st.

00:53:11.320 We got going through that, you know, and basically we got going to now, which is we're going to be in the 2026 fiscal year.

00:53:20.640 And we're in it, so quite frankly, and we're going to spend $45.4 billion on capital expenses.

00:53:26.520 Right.

00:53:26.900 Under the new accounting system, right?

00:53:28.980 And then in 2020, so when all the smoke clears and we're finally get back on schedule and when we're delivering budgets and when we're reporting, we're going to spend $56.6 billion in capital expenses on top of our $65 billion operating deficit.

00:53:50.120 Most of it is in baseline programs, that $48.5 billion I mentioned, on baseline programs that existed for the last five to 10 years.

00:53:59.460 We've just increased the amount.

00:54:01.180 And a small amount of it is in new budget items.

00:54:05.160 Okay.

00:54:05.360 So new budget items, $1.2 this year coming up.

00:54:09.240 Yep.

00:54:09.760 Then at hockey sticks up to, in election year allegedly, there's going to be money flying everywhere, $7 billion toward these new programs.

00:54:18.760 The one thing I've noticed about the budget is it really does ramp up to, to the next election.

00:54:24.580 Oh yeah.

00:54:24.880 That's, well, that's that, that chart I showed you at the beginning with the capital budgets going up, right?

00:54:29.920 So now strategic, yes.

00:54:35.960 Challenging.

00:54:38.040 Here's the issue, you know, with the economy and the way things are going in the U S tariffs and everything else, we do need to make these investments work.

00:54:46.480 So these capital investments, I know they're hockey sticking up and as we talked about, but they need to start producing.

00:54:55.560 Well, it doesn't, it looks like we're a couple of years away from really starting to see us beginning these programs, because if the money comes online in 2027, that's when you can apply for it.

00:55:06.040 That's when the budgeting really occurs.

00:55:08.380 So we're looking at 2028, 2029 before we start to even know.

00:55:13.880 But that's the importance of prioritizing your key objectives and then driving them, cutting red tape.

00:55:20.040 And that's what a lot of countries are doing right now.

00:55:22.760 Quite frankly, we've, we're not leading the pack.

00:55:25.960 No.

00:55:26.700 Yeah.

00:55:26.980 They're figuring out what they do.

00:55:28.660 Well, they're prioritizing, they're cutting red tape to it and they're going and getting, so they can export it around the world to get growth in their own economy.

00:55:36.460 Paul, thanks for taking the time because I know I should point this out to anybody watching or listening many, many hours over your weekend and your evening.

00:55:47.120 So since the budget came out, you, Christophe, Beacon, the whole gang, Nick, everybody involved in presenting this budget to Canadians.

00:55:55.080 I appreciate it because we now, for the first time ever in my life, I've actually looked at a, at a budget.

00:56:01.240 Now I will know moving forward, the things that we're looking at that are, okay, this is how much it's costing us just to operate.

00:56:08.620 If that's what it's costing us to operate and it doesn't agree with me, I'd like to see our government shrink that.

00:56:14.080 And if I'd like to see more new ideas, then we need to encourage the government to spend the money that way.

00:56:19.020 But until you actually understand the budget, there's no way for you to be able to do that.

00:56:22.840 Yeah, exactly.

00:56:23.520 And that was the purpose of the last few shows.

00:56:25.640 I really, you know, and I, I hope everyone enjoyed them or listened in.

00:56:30.060 And, um, and please, I always ask people if, uh, you have any questions or you have comments or you want to add to something we've had on the show, please, uh, send them in, you know, email us, send us your comments.

00:56:44.220 We'd love to hear them and, and we'll answer them.

00:56:46.620 Well, you know, and, and upcoming shows, we'll address them.

00:56:49.740 I promise that's true.

00:56:50.600 You've answered every question, even the dumb ones that I've had, and I've had many of them about this budget.

00:56:55.800 Um, they've all been welcomed.

00:56:57.020 So once again, thank you.

00:56:58.260 Yeah.

00:56:58.460 Thank you everyone.

00:56:59.180 And please everyone stay tuned.

00:57:00.920 We have a few new shows as the budget evolves.

00:57:03.700 We have the vote coming up for the non-confidence vote.

00:57:06.180 So we'll be keeping you posted, um, to see the outcome of that and, uh, subscribe, stay tuned and enjoy.

True Patriot Love - November 14, 2025

2025 Budget： New Accounting, Same Spending ｜ PART 3

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