The federal government will address infrastructure gaps across Canada with billions of dollars in funding over the coming decade, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Tuesday at a news conference in Brampton, Ont.

Carney used the event to break down how his government plans to dole out $51 billion in the Liberals’ Build Communities Strong Fund. The new pot of money was first announced in the 2025 budget, which became law last month.

Ottawa plans to nearly double the rate of infrastructure investment in Canada over the next eight years compared with the previous eight years, Carney said.

He teased that future announcements are coming on initiatives for skills training and apprenticeships, and urged youth to consider a career to support the infrastructure agenda.

“The next 25, 30 years is going to be a great time to be in the trades, to be an electrician, to be pipe fitter, to be welder, to a plumber, a carpenter and beyond, because we are literally going to build this country,” Carney said.

The Build Communities Strong Fund includes $27.8 billion over the next 10 years for infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water and sewer systems and $6 billion for other major local projects like building retrofits and community centres.

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Carney’s first announcement under this local stream was $64 million for a new recreation centre and park in Brampton. The federal government announced $300 million in funding for 13 total projects later in the day, more than a third of which will go toward water and wastewater systems underpinning new housing developments in Iqaluit.

The federal government launched a web page Tuesday allowing municipalities and other organizations to apply for new project funding under this stream.

1:53
Halifax construction project will be receiving a financial boost from federal government

The remaining $17.2 billion in the fund is to be matched by provinces and territories and used to reduce the cost of building new infrastructure and housing. That includes $5 billion over three years to build out health-care facilities such as new emergency departments.

With $6 billion set aside for the province, Ontario will receive the biggest share from the provincial and territorial stream. Quebec will receive $3.6 billion, British Columbia will get $2.2 billion and Alberta will receive $1.9 billion, with hundreds of millions of dollars set aside for the remaining provinces and territories.

Provinces and territories are required to allocate 20 per cent of their funding to rural, Northern and Indigenous communities. Ten per cent of funding through the $6-billion “direct delivery” stream must go to Indigenous-led projects.

The federal government announced an agreement with Ontario last week for a total of $8.8 billion in matching funds to encourage cities to cut development charges. Ontario and Ottawa will also waive the sales taxes on eligible new homes for the next year as part of a total $1.7 billion in funding to provinces and territories to lower homebuilding costs as they see fit.

British Columbia MP Dan Albas, the Conservative critic for transport, criticized the infrastructure fund rollout as “another reannouncement” in a statement Tuesday.

“Conservatives want our infrastructure, homes and health to grow and improve, but the Carney Liberals need to get out of the way and scrap their anti-development laws and unaffordable taxes,” Albas said.

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A week after the federal and Ontario governments announced they would cut the HST for new homes bought in Ontario for a year, the federal housing minister said he is in talks to expand the initiative.

“We are in discussions with all of the provinces and territories about taking down the GST for one year on new home purchases,” Housing Minister Gregor Robertson said in an interview with Global News.

The minister did not provide a timeline as to when agreements with other provinces may be announced, but emphasized that provincial governments will be expected to put up their own money or bring forward new legislation.

“That does take some negotiating. The provinces have to do the follow-through, working with local governments,” Robertson said.

“There’s some details to work through here.”

0:41
Ford says his government will waive HST on newly built homes for 1 year

Last week, the federal and Ontario governments agreed to remove the 13 per cent sales tax on new homes in the province, valued up to $1 million for one year.

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The maximum rebate of $130,000 extends to homes valued up to $1.5 million and decreases proportionally for more expensive houses.

Both governments also agreed to split $8.8 billion over 10 years, to pay for infrastructure in Ontario cities that cut development charges, which are municipal taxes levied to pay for things like sewers and roads to new subdivisions.

The federal Conservatives have called for a complete elimination of HST on all new housing, regardless of price, but Robertson said he didn’t think the GST cut would be permanent.

“I think that the point right now is to really infuse some momentum in the market, especially in Ontario and B.C, where they’ve been struggling,” Robertson said.

6:27
Housing minister on trying to end Ontario’s homebuilding slump

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim called on British Columbia Premier David Eby to secure a similar housing deal with the federal government on Thursday.

“We know the only way to improve long-term affordability is to keep building more homes,” Sim said in a statement.

“This is a window of opportunity for the province to partner with the federal government and municipalities to lower costs and deliver the homes people need.”

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is predicting Canadian homebuilders will continue to face headwinds from higher costs, weaker demand and more unsold homes particularly in the condominium market, with new home construction set to decline through 2028.

When asked if the removal of the HST from Ontario home purchases was done with developers in mind, the minister said he is trying to avoid the worst effects of a sluggish housing market.

“There are going to be very few housing starts in the next couple of years because the pre-sales have been so low. We’re certainly seeing layoffs in the building sector in (Toronto and Vancouver),” Robertson said.

“The construction jobs unfortunately will be impacted in the next year or two, so you know we’re going to see a ripple effect here. That’s what we’re trying to prevent.”

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Prime Minister Mark Carney‘s government, keen to improve its standing in the public’s eyes when it comes to law and order issues, ordered up several taxpayer-funded polls late last year to take stock of how Canadians view their work on justice issues and identify their priorities when it comes to fighting crime.

The polls, taken in November and December, returned a clear conclusion: Canadians, at the time at least, did not think the government was doing much to combat everything from home invasions to cybercrime.

They also had a dim view of the justice system when it come to treating victims of crime fairly, and strongly favoured measures that would make bail harder to get for those accused of some crimes and would give harsher sentences to repeat offenders.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, ahead of visiting a law enforcement facility in Brampton, Ont., Tuesday, acknowledged his government was not meeting the expectations many Canadians have when it comes to fighting crime.

“This needs to be a relentless focus using all the powers of the federal government,” Carney told reporters. “We are starting to see results. We’re not satisfied and we’re going to keep at this.”

2:14
Carney under scrutiny for low question period attendance rate

Pollsters believe the Liberals’ relatively poor reputation for being tough on crime contributed to poor election results last spring in Brampton, Ont., Surrey, B.C., and in parts of Calgary.

“It’s fair to say Liberals don’t always feel comfortable talking about crime because there’s a wing of the party that is much more about not getting tough on criminals but going to root causes and trying to rehabilitate criminals,” said pollster Dan Arnold of Pollara Strategies.

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Arnold was the PMO pollster for most of Justin Trudeau’s time in office and served as pollster on Trudeau’s election campaigns.

“And while a wing of the Liberal Party feels that way, the broader public is very much in a view where they wanna get tough on criminal,” he added.

Carney, in contrast to Trudeau, has tried to take the party in a different direction on law-and-order perspective.

“It’s similar to a lot of what Carney’s doing on energy and environment where he is moving to what is seen to be more of a rightward position on crime,” Arnold said

That said,  the the polling data Carney’s PMO had collected in November and December indicates there’s still work to do to change impressions the public has about the Liberals when it comes to crime.

Among the 2,000 polled during the weeks of Nov. 10-23, 87 per cent said they feel safe in their communities. And yet, more than 55 per cent said they believe crime in Canada is on the increase — in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, 65 per cent said it was increasing, while 39 per cent across the country thought it was about the same or decreasing.

“We come to it not from an electoral perspective … but from the perspective of serving and protecting the people of Brampton, the people of Peel region, the people of Ontario, and the people of Canada,” Carney said.

In February, Carney travelled to Surrey, B.C. to meet with RCMP and deliver a statement about what his government was doing to crack down on crime, especially how it was responding to a wave of extortion crimes that have been particularly prevalent in Canada’s South Asian communities.

On the same day, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, the Secretary of State for Combatting Crime Ruby Sahota and other Liberal MPs were in Brampton to announce new measures to combat extortion rackets.

“I would say any level of crime is too high,” Carney said.  What is happening in many municipalities is we’re starting to see a decline in the level of crime. But there is understandably always going to be a lag before, or that materializes, and it changes in view.”

The Carney government has moved on bail reform, strengthened border security, proposed a gun buyback scheme and was moving to provide money to hire more police officers. Little of that, though, seems to have registered in the minds of voters.

2:18
Conservatives accuse Carney government of blocking its own bail reform bill

The PCO polling found that, as of November at least, just 17 per cent of respondents answered “yes” when asked, “Have you seen, read or heard anything recently that the federal government has done to reduce crime in Canada?” while 78 per cent answered “no.”

More than 40 per cent of respondents in every province but Quebec said the government was on the “wrong track” managing crime and less than 33 per cent in each region thought the government was on the right track. In Quebec, though, it was the reverse: 45 per cent said the government was on the right track; 26 per cent said it was on the “wrong track.”

The PCO polling also found that Canadians overwhelmingly believe the courts and the justice system are “too soft” on people who have broken the law, although Quebec again was an outlier. While nearly two-thirds in every other region believe the courts are too soft, just 49 per cent of Quebecers believed so.

And while most Canadians polled by the PCO believe accused persons are treated fairly by the courts, a majority — 54 per cent — believe victims of crime are treated unfairly.

From Nov. 1 to Dec. 14 last year, multiple polls were put into the field by the Privy Council Office (PCO), through the weekly PCO polling program that first began during the Trudeau years.

Every week, 1,000 Canadians are asked to participate in a live-agent telephone poll on a range of issues.

The prime minister’s director of research — a political appointee — decides on the questions asked and prepares the results for distribution to the prime minister, his senior aides, cabinet ministers and deputy ministers.

Voters in two ridings in Ontario and one in Quebec have until the end of the day to head to advance polls in upcoming federal byelections that could give Prime Minister Mark Carney a majority government.

Last month, Carney announced byelections in the two Toronto-area ridings of Scarborough Southwest and University-Rosedale and the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne set for April 13.

Advance polls in the three ridings opened last Friday and will close at 9 p.m. Monday, and voters can also cast ballots at their local Elections Canada office before 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The byelection in Terrebonne comes after the Supreme Court nullified the Liberal candidate’s one-vote federal election win in the riding, after the Bloc Québécois candidate challenged the results when a supporter complained she tried to vote by mail using a special ballot that wasn’t counted.

Meanwhile, the University-Rosedale seat was left vacant after former Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland departed to serve as an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and become CEO of the Rhodes Trust.

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Bill Blair, also a former Liberal MP, left the riding of Scarborough Southwest vacant after he was appointed Canada’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom.

1:53
3 byelections called as Liberals near majority

The Toronto ridings are considered to be safe seats for the Liberals, while Terrebonne was held by a Bloc Québécois MP before the last federal election.

Liberal wins in the two Toronto ridings would bring the party to 172 seats in the House of Commons, which is enough for a majority.

But because the Speaker does not typically vote, a government with 172 seats still needs at least one opposition member to vote with them or abstain from voting to pass legislation — which means all eyes will be on the race in Terrebonne, which could give the Liberals a critical extra seat.

Polling aggregator 338 Canada has said Terrebonne is a toss-up between the Liberals and Bloc.

Residents in the three ridings can also cast their vote by mail, if they apply to do so by Tuesday.

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The Conservative critic for Indigenous Services is adding his voice to calls for Prime Minister Mark Carney to apologize to Grassy Narrows First Nation after he said he could “outlast” a protester raising concerns about mercury poisoning in her community.

Conservative MP Billy Morin told The Canadian Press Carney “laughs at First Nations’ frustrations over the Liberals failing to keep their promises,” and that his remark was more arrogant than a similar quip former prime minister Justin Trudeau made to a Grassy Narrows demonstrator in 2019.

Chrissy Isaacs, a Grassy Narrows First Nation woman suffering from mercury poisoning, was in Toronto on Monday to demand compensation from the provincial government for mercury contamination in her community.

The Dryden Paper Mill released thousands of kilograms of mercury into Grassy Narrows’ river system from the 1960s to the 1970s. It’s widely considered to be one of the country’s worst environmental disasters and community members are still dealing with the fallout today.

Isaacs and a group of community members and their supporters attended a news conference Carney held on Monday with Ontario Premier Doug Ford to announce new funding for housing. She and the other protesters could be heard chanting and shouting in the background about the mercury contamination.

“I can outlast her,” Carney said, laughing briefly along with Ford and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow.

The Prime Minister’s Office said in a media statement Wednesday Carney could not hear what the demonstrators were saying and that members of his staff spoke to the demonstrators to hear their concerns. It’s not clear if the prime minister knew why the protesters were there when he made the remarks.

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PMO spokesperson Audrey Champoux said Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty is “in contact with Grassy Narrows leadership to continue progress on critical projects ranging from a new health centre, housing and a mercury care home that will help ensure those suffering from mercury poisoning have the care they need, close to home.”

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau made similar remarks after a protester who supported Grassy Narrows disrupted a 2019 Liberal party fundraiser.

When the woman interrupted the fundraiser to raise concerns about the “mercury crisis” and the suffering of community members, Trudeau thanked her for her “donation.”

He later apologized, saying he “lacked respect towards them.”

The chiefs of Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong First Nations say Carney should do the same.

“Shame on you, prime minister. You’re making a joke of my people,” Grassy Narrows Chief Sherry Ackabee told The Canadian Press Wednesday.

NDP MP Leah Gazan also called on Carney to apologize. In a media statement issued Wednesday, she said she was “disgusted” by Carney’s conduct.

“Is the health and wellbeing of Indigenous peoples not in the national interest? Is the voice of a woman living with mercury poisoning not worthy of respect? Is the protection of lands and waters not fundamental to who we are as a country?” she wrote.

“Grassy Narrows deserves justice. It deserves clean water. It deserves full accountability from governments that have failed for far too long to uphold their obligations.”

Grassy Narrows is located some 150 kilometres from Dryden, Ont., close to the Ontario-Manitoba border. Wabaseemoong Independent Nation is also nearby.

The Dryden Paper Mill dumped 9,000 kilograms of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River system. The mill stopped using mercury in its industrial process in the 1970s, but mercury levels downstream from the plant haven’t decreased significantly since the 1980s.

A 2024 study from Western University found emissions from the mill, including sulphate, continue to wreak havoc on the community by generating methylmercury.

The report found levels of methylmercury — the most toxic form of mercury — in the Wabigoon River’s fish may be twice as high as they would have been without the mill discharge.

One study estimated that 90 per cent of the Grassy Narrows population suffers from some degree of mercury poisoning. The heavy metal can be passed from mothers to babies they carry, making it a problem that spans generations.

Mercury poisoning can cause neurotoxicity and damage peoples’ nervous systems, causing premature deaths. Children and babies are most at risk.

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said in a media statement Thursday Carney’s remarks “were shameful.”

“What continues to happen to the people of Grassy Narrows First Nations and Wabaseemoong Independent Nations is devastating, and to turn the decades of neglect and people’s lives into a punchline is shameful,” she wrote.

“The community and rights holders have been asking government after government to listen to their concerns and take this crisis seriously. I am urging both the Premier and Prime Minister to start taking their responsibility towards reconciliation seriously.”

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Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday condemned what he called Israel’s “illegal invasion” of southern Lebanon, which he said is a violation of territorial sovereignty.

Carney told reporters in French in Wakefield, Que., that a ceasefire is necessary between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, against which Israeli forces have launched a renewed offensive.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said earlier Tuesday that Israel plans to control a 30-kilometre area between the Israel-Lebanon border and the Litani River — about one-tenth of Lebanon’s territory — even after the fighting with Hezbollah ends.

“It’s an illegal invasion — it’s an invasion of Lebanon,” Carney said in English. “It’s a violation of their territorial sovereignty.

“From a practical perspective, the government of Lebanon has banned Hezbollah, is trying to take action against Hezbollah and their terrorist activities and their threats to Israel. And that is the purported justification for this invasion. So we condemn it.”

Global Affairs Canada posted on X last week that the government “strongly condemns Israel’s plans to occupy territory in southern Lebanon,” while also calling on Hezbollah to disarm and cease its attacks on Israel.

3:20
US-Iran war: Conflict expands as it enters its 2nd month with strikes hitting civilian targets

The Canadian government has declared Hezbollah to be a foreign terrorist entity since 2002. The group takes inspiration from the Iranian revolution and is dedicated to Israel’s destruction, according to the listing.

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The war in the Middle East widened when Hezbollah launched missiles toward Israel on March 2, two days after Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran.

Israel immediately retaliated and declared war on Hezbollah, launching waves of airstrikes and sending ground troops across the border.

More than 1.2 million people have been displaced and another 1,200 have been killed in Lebanon since the fighting began. Ten Israeli soldiers have died in Lebanon, including four announced Tuesday, and three United Nations peacekeepers were killed earlier this week.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) earlier this month ordered residents to leave swathes of the south, the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, and the group’s political heartlands in eastern Lebanon.

1:52
Israel intends to seize parts of Lebanon as strikes against Hezbollah intensify, government says

Katz said Tuesday that Israel will destroy all homes in Lebanese villages near the border, and that 600,000 people who fled the south will not be allowed home until northern Israel is secure.

“At the end of the operation, the IDF will establish a security zone inside Lebanon — a line of defense against anti-tank missiles — and will maintain security control over the entire area up to the Litani River, including the remaining Litani bridges,” he said in a statement.

He added the destruction of homes near the Lebanese border will be done “in accordance with the model used in Rafah and Beit Hanoun in Gaza, in order to permanently remove the threats near the border to northern residents.”

Israel on Tuesday launched new strikes targeting what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut.

Lebanon’s minister of social affairs, Haneen Sayed, told Reuters that Israel’s ground operation, which she described as a “land grab,” was deepening the risk that Lebanese would be stuck in long-term displacement.

The Israeli military said Tuesday that Hezbollah had fired almost 5,000 drones, rockets and missiles at Israel during the conflict.

The war is the second major conflict between Israel and Hezbollah since 2024. Israel dealt Hezbollah heavy blows in the last war, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah and thousands of its fighters.

—with files from Reuters

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Prime Minister Mark Carney told a closed-door fundraiser crowd Monday night that floor-crossing MP Michael Ma represents “Liberal values,” after the former Conservative politician drew controversy over comments about forced labour in China.

In video obtained by Global News, Carney told the crowd at the GTA fundraiser that the Liberals were “glad” to welcome Ma to their ranks after the MP crossed from Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives in December.

“(Ma) joined, he said, because he was guided by the values of building up others, delivering results — he’s a results-oriented individual — and choosing the path that creates opportunities for Canadians,” Carney said.

“These are fundamental Liberal values, fundamental Canadian values and that’s why Michael Ma has found a home in our party.”

The $1,775 per ticket fundraiser was closed to the media and the public, but Global News obtained video from a source who was in the room. The material reviewed by Global includes extended speeches from both Carney and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson.

Ma was forced to apologize publicly last week after grilling a witness about forced labour in China at a House of Commons committee meeting on electric vehicles. The witness was suggesting that Chinese-made electric vehicles include parts produced by slave labour.

Ma demanded to know if Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa, had witnessed the practice with her own eyes.

“Have you witnessed forced labour in (the Chinese province of) Shenzhen? Have you witnessed forced labour? Just a short answer — have you witnessed forced labour in Shenzhen, yes or no?” Ma asked, suggesting the alternative was “hearsay.”

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Ma’s brusque remarks were initially misinterpreted by media outlets as referring to the western province of Xinjiang, which had been a major topic during the meeting. Human rights abuses against Xinjiang’s Uyghur Muslim population have been well-documented by international monitoring groups.

Several hours after his questions, Ma issued an apology and indicated he “inadvertently came across as dismissive of the serious issue of forced labour.”

“To be clear, my line of questioning referred to auto manufacturing in Shenzhen, China, and not in Xinjiang,” Ma’s statement read.

“I regret this mistake and apologize to Ms. McCuaig-Johnston and my fellow committee members.”

Ma added that he opposes forced labour “in all its forms.”

Earlier Monday, Carney was repeatedly asked by reporters about Ma’s comments.

“Mr. Ma has apologized for his comments, as he should have,” Carney said.

“He’s recognized the seriousness of the issue in that apology.”

Ma joined the Liberal caucus in December, one of three MPs to leave Poilievre’s Conservatives to join Carney’s team since November.

The Markham-Unionville MP accompanied Carney on his trade mission to Beijing in January, shortly after joining the Liberal caucus.

At Monday’s fundraiser, Carney boasted about his Liberal party attracting floor crossers like Ma not only from Poilievre’s Conservatives, but also from the federal New Democrats and the Ontario NDP.

“The Liberal party is a big tent, and it’s getting bigger,” Carney said in video reviewed by Global News.

Carney has put an emphasis on diversifying Canadian trade away from the United States under President Donald Trump, whose unprovoked tariff war has led to a year of chaos for Canadian businesses heavily dependent on American trade.

That includes thawing relations with China and other economically important but dubiously reliable partners. Canada-China affairs have been frosty in recent years, after Beijing detained Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on national security grounds — largely perceived as retaliation after Ottawa arrested Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. warrant.

The prime minister’s January trip to Beijing was successful in reducing Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola and agricultural exports, and Carney agreed to let a limited number of Chinese electric vehicles into the Canadian market.

Carney was pressed on the Uyghurs’ situation at a press conference on Tuesday, and whether he believes — as the House of Commons unanimously agreed in 2021 — that it constitutes a “genocide.”

“There are serious issues that remain,” Carney said.

“That is why I’ve raised human rights issues with my Chinese counterparts in our engagements, and it’s why it’s essential in our dealings with China, in commercial dealings with China, that we have transparency in terms of where goods come from, the treatment of those workers, and that they fully meet our standards in terms of child labour, slave labour, human rights.”

Carney’s comments came as Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne departed for a five-day visit to China to meet with government and business leaders. Champagne’s office said the trip was an effort to “build strategic partnerships” and drum up investment “as part of Canada’s broader diversification imperative.”

In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said that Ma will be “moving forward” focusing on the government’s priorities, including addressing affordability issues, public safety and housing.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he is “absolutely not” considering proroguing Parliament if he were to secure a majority government.

“Absolutely not. It has never even entered my thinking, the possibility of that, so I couldn’t have been more surprised to see [the] suggestion that … was under consideration,” he said at an announcement in Wakefield, Que., surrounding the protection of land and waters on Tuesday.

“We are absolutely focused on working with Parliament, getting legislation through Parliament, adjusting legislation where it needs to be, where it’s better informed by discussions in Parliament, where we have to make compromise in order to do it. And we’ve shown that. We’ve shown that consistently.”

2:05
Terrebonne candidates expect a tight race leading up to April 13 federal byelection

The Globe and Mail had reported earlier Tuesday morning, citing sources, that Carney was considering proroguing Parliament if the results of three byelections on April 13 push him into a sought-after majority government.

While a majority would give the Liberals enough votes to control the passing of legislation in the House of Commons, the membership of House of Commons committees doesn’t automatically reset and adjust to reflect a byelection.

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That means even with a majority, the Liberals could still face challenges with being outvoted or stalled by opposition members on some committees that study proposed legislation.

Prorogation ends a session of Parliament, kills any legislation currently in progress, and would require a new speech from the throne to restart a parliamentary session, including the re-establishment and re-appointing of MPs to committees.

Last month, MP Matt Jeneroux crossed the floor to the Liberals from the Conservatives, which was followed by Lori Idlout leaving the NDP on March 10. Two other former Conservatives, Michael Ma and Chris D’Entremont, crossed the floor late last year.

Carney currently needs three more seats to officially achieve a majority government.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney says forced labour is a “global issue” and that “parts of China” are a higher risk for it, when asked whether he believes the practice is happening there.

The questions from reporters came as Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is set to head to China this week, and after Liberal MP Michael Ma apologized last week for comments he made in committee to a witness that appeared to cast doubt on reported human rights abuses.

“I followed this issue over the years, in China and elsewhere, and there is evidence of child labour around the world. There’s existence, I should say, of child labour and forced labour around the world,” Carney said at a homebuilding announcement Monday.

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“We recognize that this is a global issue that we need to be vigilant on and not assume that … it’s not an issue in certain countries, including in certain developed countries,” he said.

“Yes, [it] would be part of the discussions as it is in other situations where we’re developing trade.”

1:14
Liberal MP Michael Ma apologizes after questioning forced labour claims in Xinjiang

Carney was pressed several times by reporters on the matter.

However, Carney stated that “there are parts of China that are higher risk and therefore need to be diligent.”

Earlier this year, United Nations experts said that “there is a persistent pattern of alleged State-imposed forced labour involving ethnic minorities across multiple provinces in China.”

“In many cases, the coercive elements are so severe that they may amount to forcible transfer and/or enslavement as a crime against humanity,” the special rapporteurs and independent experts said.

China has repeatedly rejected claims of forced labour.

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When he’s in the House of Commons during the daily 45-minute  Question Period, Mark Carney seems to enjoy himself.

While it’s never shown on TV cameras — House of Commons personnel and not broadcasters control the visuals — those  in the galleries will often see Carney smiling and joking with members of the opposition, including Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. Judging by his grins and applause, Carney seems to be happy when someone on his side scores a debating point against an opponent.

But enjoy it as he might, Carney is rarely in Question Period.

A Global News analysis of the official record of House of Commons proceedings, known as Hansard, shows that Carney has been present for just 28 of the 96 QP sessions since the 2025 general election. (The PMO said he’s been present in QP 29 times). Carney’s QP attendance rate of 29.2 per cent pales next to Justin Trudeau’s record in the first year after he was first elected in 2015 — 41 of 89 or 46.1 per cent — or Stephen Harper’s after he was first elected in 2006 — 61 of 95 sessions, or 64.2 per cent.

“I think he could do a few more,” said Conservative MP Ben Lobb (Huron-Bruce) who, after first winning his seat in the 2008 election,  has watched all three prime ministers in action in QP. He finds Carney’s poor attendance record puzzling. “He should be here a little bit more.” 

The daily QP session can often descend into farce, and the rise of social media has prompted many Conservative MPs especially to simply use their time in QP as an opportunity to create TikTok or Instagram content. That said, it’s the only opportunity opposition MPs have to ask a prime minister to explain his policies.

Indeed, in the very first QP session after the 2025 election, Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer reminded Carney that, “this is where democracy lives and this is where we provide rigorous scrutiny of every word [the PM] says and every dollar he spends on behalf of Canadians.”

Every prime minister has their own approach to QP but prime ministers, when they are present, usually answer questions only from leaders of recognized parties or their designates in what is informally known as the “Leaders’ Round,” the first dozen or so questions during QP. Questions from backbenchers outside the Leaders’ Round are usually ignored by the prime minister and answered by a member of the PM’s cabinet.

During Harper’s time in office, for example, that tradition meant that he would normally, though not always, respond to questions from whoever was leading the Liberals, the Bloc Québecois or the NDP.

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Carney, by and large, has continued the tradition of only participating in the “Leaders’ Round.” With one notable exception, that has meant he only responds to questions put to him by Conservatives or the BQ. In the last election, the NDP failed to win enough seats to become an officially recognized party in the House and, perhaps for that reason, Carney has yet to answer a single query from a New Democrat during Question Period. Because of their party status, NDP MPs get only a few slots a week to ask a question and those slots are always at the end of the 45-minute session.

“You know, 1.2 million Canadians voted for us. I don’t think it’s too much to ask the prime minister to wait an extra 10 minutes to answer questions that will be put to him,” said NDP interim leader Don Davies. “The questions the NDP puts to this government are questions that nobody else puts — questions on healthcare, questions on Indigenous rights, questions on progressive foreign policy — questions that don’t come from anywhere else in the house but the New Democrats.”

Carney’s office did not say why he has not responded to questions from any NDP MPs but a spokeperson did provide this statement: “During this time, the House of Commons has sat for 21 weeks and Prime Minister Carney has participated in Question Period 29 times, responding to questions from the leaders of both officially recognised opposition parties. He has taken a collaborative approach, including meeting with the leaders of all parties to discuss shared legislative priorities.”

The Hansard record indicates the only time Carney departed from his practice of only responding to opposition questions in the Leaders’ Round was on Nov. 17 when, needing her support in a pending confidence vote on the budget, Carney responded to a question from Green Party MP Elizabeth May.

During his time in office, Trudeau established the practice of taking all questions from the opposition — from leaders and from backbenchers — once a week, on Wednesdays.

Lobb, the Conservative MP, never got a chance to put a question to Trudeau, according to Hansard. But, nonetheless, Lobb said Trudeau’s weekly round gave MPs the opportunity to hold the prime minister to account for local or regional issues. Lobb cited the current controversy about a proposed high-speed rail line between Toronto and Montreal. Many eastern Ontario MPs have expressed their opposition, on behalf of constituents, and would likely hope to have the opportunity to hear the prime minister, rather than the transport minister, respond to questions on the topic.

Being present in QP also gives a prime minister a sense of what is important in regions of the country where his own party may not have much representation. The Liberals, for example, have sparse representation in small-town, rural, and Western Canada.

“I think a prime minister should be [in QP] whenever possible just to hear the temperature of the country and to hear from the representatives,” said Dan Albas, Conservative for Okanagan Lake West-South Kelowna. “To me, that’s gold.”

– with files from Sophall Duch

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