Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for an emergency debate on the economy in the House of Commons, saying the current situation is “an emergency.” Poilievre released an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sunday, calling for an emergency parliamentary debate for the federal government to “tell Canadians your plan to reserve this recession.” In an interview on Newstalk 580 CFRA’s The Morning Rush with Bill Carroll on Monday, Poilievre said there is no reason not to have a debate on the current state of the economy. “When you have 2.2 million people lined up at a food bank, when you have delinquency rates skyrocketing up by 32 per cent year-over-year, it’s an emergency,” Poilievre said. “So, the speaker should rule that this is an economic emergency and grant a debate so that we can come up with a joint plan for all of Parliament to reverse this situation we’re in with the only recession in the G7.” On Friday, Statistics Canada reported Canada entered a technical recession after the economy contracted for the second quarter in a row. The economy contracted 0.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2026 after a one per cent drop in the fourth quarter of 2025. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne‘s office rejected a call for an emergency debate. In a statement, the minister’s office said, “Canadians do not need political theatre right now,” and pointed to global economic pressures, including U.S. tariffs. “The United States has fundamentally changed its approach to trade, raising its tariffs to levels last seen during the Great Depression,” the statement said. In his letter to Carney, Poilievre said, “45,800 more Canadians unemployed since you became prime minister,” Canada has the second-highest unemployment rate in the G7 and the economy has shrunk in three of the last four quarters. “Canada, under Mark Carney’s leadership, is worse than any other G7 country, so we just can’t blame world events,” Poilievre told 580 CFRA. Carroll asked Poilievre what the Conservative Party would like to see the Liberal government do to avoid the recession. “He needs to reverse all of his economic policies,” Poilievre said, noting the federal deficit has doubled under Carney. “Now, outside of COVID, we have the biggest deficit in Canadian history and the highest government spending as a share of GDP since 1996. He’s created 12 new government agencies and got rid of none. Government bureaucracy and overspending is basically devouring the economy, and, and so he needs to reverse all of those policies. “Let’s cut back on consultants, bureaucracy, corporate welfare, foreign aid, handouts to fake refugees to bring down the deficit.” “Show up at the negotiating table?” Poilievre was asked what the federal government should be doing to get a trade deal with the United States. “Show up at the negotiating table? That would be a start,” Poilievre said, saying Carney has not been negotiating for the last six months. “There are formal negotiations going on between Mexico and the United States. We’re not there,” Poilievre said. “There are no formal negotiations between Canada and the U.S., and meanwhile, there are many interests that we can conflict between Canada and Mexico at those tables, and the Mexicans are winning them out because Carney has been hiding from negotiations for half a year.” Canada-U.S. trade minister Dominic LeBlanc is scheduled to travel to Washington this week ahead of the July 1 deadline to review the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade deal. With files from CTV News reporter Jeremie Charron
