Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne released Budget 2026 on Thursday, the first budget tabled by the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney, roughly twenty months after it took office. The document commits $151.1 billion in new investments and sets out measures aimed at Canadian technology companies, with a focus on implementation, investment, growth, sovereignty and resilience.
On the fiscal side, the deficit track remains largely unchanged from the Spring Economic Update. Federal tax revenue is higher, driven by restated growth figures and higher oil prices, which the budget relies on to keep the outlook stable while funding the new spending.
The most structural change for the financial and innovation sector is the plan to merge the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and Export Development Canada (EDC) into a single federal development bank. The Canadian Commercial Corporation would become a subsidiary of EDC, and the Canada Infrastructure Bank would now report to the Finance Minister. The Canada Strong Fund is to become a Crown corporation, with $3.5 million over two years allocated to Finance for oversight of Crown corporations. Employees at the BDC reportedly reacted with surprise to the merger plan when it was discussed at a SAAS NORTH event.
For companies, the Canada Growth Incentive would exempt capital gains of up to $15 million, starting in 2027-28. The budget also commits $930 million over five years to extend the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) program to commercialization costs, a change that would allow firms to claim support for bringing research to market rather than only for the research itself. Clean technology and clean electricity tax credits are extended to 2040.
On artificial intelligence, the budget earmarks 500 megawatts of sovereign AI compute capacity for Canadian technology firms. It also proposes $100 million over three years for municipal AI adoption and electronic permitting, and says a Technology Stability Board is under exploration to address advanced AI safety.
Defence and dual-use technologies receive particular emphasis, including quantum, aerospace and drones. The budget allocates $2.3 billion over five years to a Defence Drone Initiative.
In financial services, the Real-Time Rail payments system is scheduled to launch on November 9. The budget sets out stablecoin rules under which regulated institutions would issue them through non-financial subsidiaries. A new Financial Crimes Agency is expected to begin operations in the fall of 2027, and the government has set a one-year target for decisions on applications for new regulated financial institutions.
Not every measure was addressed. The replacement for the Start-up Visa program remains unresolved, and intellectual property modernization has been deferred to spring 2027. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business criticized the absence of settled tariff relief, while the government pointed to a $500 million BDC financing stream for firms affected by tariffs.
Beyond technology, the budget sets a $50 billion National Electricity Strategy aimed at doubling electricity supply by 2050, announces a $6.5 billion nuclear strategy, and commits $587 million to renew the electric vehicle charger infrastructure program. It also creates a $1 billion Government Transformation Fund for information technology projects and allocates $176.3 million to a new Digital Safety and Data Protection Commission.
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