Photo Courtesy Chris Warkentin

By Tanner Smith with files from Canadian Press

Federal Budget

GP-Mackenzie MP Chris Warkentin calls tabled federal budget “utterly reckless”

Nov 5, 2025 | 1:59 PM

Grande Prairie-Mackenzie MP and Chief Opposition Whip Chris Warkentin is reacting to the tabled federal budget after what he calls, “an unprecedented delay.”

Warkentin says “this is a budget that will make Mark Carney’s banker and bondholder buddies wealthy while making average Canadians poorer.”

With $141 billion in spending, while the government faces a $78 billion deficit, Warkentin called it “utterly reckless and completely unsustainable,” adding, “it will add record debt onto future generations.”

This is the second statement his office put out in 24 hours, after speaking on Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont crossing the floor, saying his party is “disappointed he let his own personal grievances of not getting elected Deputy Speaker get in the way of his promises.”

A move, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says the Liberals have been working on behind the scenes, courting him for five years.

Warkentin’s full statement on the tabled budget can be found below:

The Liberal government finally tabled their budget. This comes following an unprecedented delay which should have seen this budget tabled far earlier in the year.

Conservatives have been clear in our demands for an affordable budget for an affordable Canada. We want to reverse the higher prices, lower paycheques and bigger bills that the Liberals have created. Unfortunately, these budget demands have not been met.

With $141 Billion of new spending and a projected deficit of $78 Billion, this budget will undoubtedly make life more unaffordable for Canadians. It is a failure. Mark Carney is clearly taking a page from Justin Trudeau’s costly playbook. Each dollar spent in the budget is not abstract – it comes from the pockets of hardworking Canadians through taxes and inflation.

After ten years, Canadians have had enough of paying for Liberal failures. Canada’s debt is to the point where people are paying more in interest servicing fees than what the federal government sends to provinces for annual healthcare funding. This amount is more than all the GST collected by the government every year.

“This is an unaffordable budget that will make life unaffordable for average Canadians,” said Warkentin. “This level of spending is utterly reckless and completely unsustainable. It will add record debt onto future generations.”

Warkentin added, “This is a budget that will make Mark Carney’s banker and bond holder buddies wealthy while making average Canadians poorer.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney is defending his federal budget from critics who question the scale of investment.

The budget tabled in the House of Commons yesterday includes nearly 90-billion-dollars in net new spending over five years.

Carney says now is not the time to be cautious because fortune favours the bold and instead, it’s time to get big things done for Canadians.

He claims measures in the budget would help the country meet a lofty goal of attracting one-trillion-dollars in total investment over the next five years — more than offsetting the disruption from U-S tariffs.

(With files from The Canadian Press)