Current Status
Status: Not Started
No concrete actions by the Carney government have advanced the specific extensions outlined in this promise.
Background
Canada's economic competitiveness has long been a focal point for policymakers, particularly in attracting foreign direct investment and supporting domestic businesses amid global competition. During the 2025 federal election campaign, Mark Carney positioned himself as a champion of economic renewal, emphasizing the need to lower investment costs for Canadian firms to keep them competitive on the international stage. This promise targeted extensions to existing tax incentives, such as immediate expensing for key equipment categories and the Accelerated Investment Incentive, which were originally introduced under previous administrations to encourage capital investments in manufacturing, clean energy, and related sectors. Fulfilling it would require legislative changes to the Income Tax Act, potentially through budget implementation bills, to explicitly extend these measures and ensure they apply to the specified areas, thereby reducing upfront costs for businesses and aligning Canada with global standards for investment attractiveness. The policy area draws on broader discussions about fiscal soundness, low-tax environments, and enabling green business growth, as highlighted in government reports on foreign investment competitiveness from 2025.
These incentives trace back to efforts by the Trudeau government, which implemented the Accelerated Investment Incentive in 2018 to allow businesses to deduct capital costs more quickly, alongside temporary expensing for clean energy and zero-emission vehicles. Carney's pledge aimed to build on this foundation by extending them, responding to industry calls for sustained support amid economic pressures like inflation, supply chain disruptions, and competition from the U.S. and other G7 nations. Achieving the promise would involve not just announcing extensions but enacting them through Parliament, with measurable impacts on investment costs and competitiveness metrics, such as effective tax rates on new business investments.
The context includes Canada's strong performance in global rankings for business ease and low net debt among G7 countries, as noted in reports from May and December 2025. However, these reports reflect ongoing economic conditions rather than new policy actions. Carney's campaign rhetoric framed these extensions as essential for transforming strategic industries, fostering innovation, and positioning Canada as a gateway to North America, especially in light of trade agreements like the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement and broader efforts to enhance environmental protection and sustainable development.
Evidence
Since Mark Carney was sworn in as Prime Minister following the 2025 federal election, his government has taken steps in related economic areas, but none directly address the specific extensions promised for immediate expensing or the Accelerated Investment Incentive.
On September 5, 2025, Prime Minister Carney announced new measures to protect, build, and transform Canadian strategic industries, including a reskilling package for 50,000 workers and investments through Labour Market Development Agreements, totaling an additional $450 million over three years [4]. This announcement focused on workforce development and economic transformation but did not mention tax incentives or expensing extensions for the promised categories.
On November 4, 2025, the government tabled its budget, followed by the introduction of Bill C-15, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget, which received first reading in the House of Commons on January 26, 2026 [5,7]. The bill includes amendments to the Income Tax Act and other legislation, with provisions for payments from the Consolidated Revenue Fund and coordinating amendments [7]. However, available details do not specify extensions to immediate expensing for manufacturing or processing machinery and equipment, clean energy generation, energy conservation equipment, zero-emission vehicles, or the Accelerated Investment Incentive.
Government reports from December 2025 highlight Canada's low-tax environment and competitiveness for foreign direct investment, noting the country's ranking as the second-best in the G20 for doing business from 2026 to 2030 and its low effective tax rates on new business investments [2]. These reports update earlier May 2025 findings on fiscal soundness and green business enabling [1], but they document existing conditions rather than new legislative or policy actions by the Carney government.
No further actions, such as passage of relevant legislation or implementation of the extensions, are documented in the sources up to March 26, 2026. Other materials, including archived reports on competition and international trade agreements from prior years, provide historical context but no evidence of Carney-era progress on this promise [3,6,8].
Assessment
More than a year into Mark Carney's tenure as Prime Minister, his government's record on this campaign promise remains stagnant, with no verifiable steps to extend the specified tax incentives that were central to reducing investment costs and boosting international competitiveness for Canadian companies. While the tabling of Bill C-15 in January 2026 represents a procedural move in implementing the fall 2025 budget, the lack of explicit details linking it to the promised extensions—such as immediate expensing for manufacturing equipment or zero-emission vehicles—leaves the commitment unaddressed. Announcements like the September 2025 industry measures underscore a focus on workforce training, but they sidestep the tax-based mechanisms Carney pledged to deploy, raising questions about priorities in an economy where low-tax advantages are already touted in official reports yet not actively enhanced through these targeted tools.
This absence of action stands out against the backdrop of Canada's solid global standings in business complexity and investment attractiveness, as outlined in late 2025 analyses, which credit longstanding fiscal policies rather than new initiatives under Carney. Without concrete legislative fulfillment or regulatory changes to match the promise's wording, Canadian firms continue to operate under existing frameworks inherited from the Trudeau era, potentially missing opportunities to further lower investment barriers in key sectors like clean energy and manufacturing. As economic projections for 2026 emphasize stable growth and low inflation, the government has yet to demonstrate the follow-through needed to deliver on this pledge, leaving it effectively untouched.
The broader implications for accountability are clear: promises of economic competitiveness require more than rhetorical nods to low taxes; they demand tangible policy delivery. With no evidence of progress toward the exact components Carney outlined—extensions that could directly impact capital costs—the promise lingers in limbo, underscoring a gap between campaign rhetoric and governing reality in the early months of 2026.
Sources
- Key facts about Canada’s competitiveness for foreign direct investment: May 2025
- Key facts about Canada’s competitiveness for foreign direct investment
- Building a More Competitive Canada
- Prime Minister Carney launches new measures to protect, build, and transform Canadian strategic industries | Prime Minister of Canada
- Bill C-15: An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on November 4, 2025
- Global Minimum Tax Act
- Government Bill (House of Commons) C-15 (45-1) - First Reading - Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 1 - Parliament of Canada
- Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act