Ottawa fiscal update mired in uncertainty amid tariff fears, Freeland exit

The Liberal government’s fall economic statement arrived in a cloud of controversy Monday after Chrystia Freeland’s abrupt resignation as the minister of finance.

The Liberal government’s fall economic statement arrived in a cloud of controversy Monday after Chrystia Freeland’s abrupt resignation as the minister of finance.

The fall fiscal update will largely see the federal government look inward for growth opportunities as the spectre of United States president-elect Donald Trump’s protectionist policies loom large over the Canadian economy.

Within the 270-page fiscal update, the federal government offers an overview of risks to Canada’s economy tied to Trump’s return to office. Until he begins his second term in January, however, the specifics of how his policies including potential tariffs will impact Canada are unknown.

The Liberals eye domestic spending on artificial intelligence and opening the floodgates to more investments from Canadian pension funds as tactics to gird the economy against that uncertainty.

Freeland resigned from cabinet early Monday — doing so in a scathing letter to the prime minister that cited a difference of opinion on the direction of federal finances — leaving Karina Gould, leader of the government in the House of Commons, to table the document in the chamber.

Dominic LeBlanc was sworn in as the new minister of finance and of intergovernmental affairs in a brief ceremony at Rideau Hall on Monday afternoon.

The update on Ottawa’s finances ultimately presented a picture of economic uncertainty and a deteriorating fiscal position for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, already struggling in the polls and now beset by fresh political turmoil as well.

“It’s a big deficit, high-spending, high-debt fall economic statement,” said Randall Bartlett, senior director of Canadian economics at Desjardins.