Chilliwack – As expected, as he is the Concevative Party Whip, Mark Strahl, Member of Parliament for Chilliwack—Hope, released the following statement in response to the 2026 Liberal Budget:
“Job one for the Liberal government should have been saving Canadians money on fuel, food, and homes. They failed. Instead, they added $765 billion in new debt. Prime Minister Carney did the equivalent of dividing spending onto three credit cards to make the amounts look smaller, but that does not change the facts. He borrows more, Canadians pay more.
“Conservatives asked the Prime Minister to take all taxes off gas to save 20 cents-a-litre and $1,200 per family. Instead, Canadians get no gas tax relief as Liberals plan a fuel tax hike for early next year. Conservatives asked Liberals to cut waste. Since taking office, Mark Carney spent even more than Justin Trudeau did, and Budget 2026 adds a further $151.5 billion in debt. Conservatives asked Mark Carney to keep his election promise to reduce the debt as a share of GDP—instead, he is making it worse.
“The budget promises to add a record-smashing $765 billion of debt over the next five years. That amounts to $44,000 for every household in Canada. This is the biggest borrowing binge in Canadian history—worse than Trudeau—and will drive up inflation and interest rates today, and taxes tomorrow.
“The fastest-growing item in the budget is debt interest. A family of four pays almost $6,000 in federal government debt interest costs this year alone. That amount rises to $8,181 by 2030-31 as the government will be spending $17 billion more on debt interest than on health care transfers in that year. To cover up the rising cost of debt, the Prime Minister has cooked the books, keeping $476 billion in borrowing off the budget.
“Conservatives will keep fighting to cut wasteful Liberal spending to save Canadians money on fuel, food, and homes.”
