# Federal Budget 2026: live coverage of the tech, AI and telecom measures

> Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne tables the budget Thursday around 4 p.m. ET. We'll pull out what it means for tech, AI, telecom and startups as the documents land.

- Published: 2026-11-05T21:00:00.000Z (updated 2026-11-04T13:49:00.000Z)
- By: The Circuit Staff
- Type: Live
- Topics: Policy, Budget 2026
- URL: https://thecircuit.ca/posts/2026-11-05-federal-budget-2026-live/

## Before it starts

**Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne tables the federal budget in the House of Commons on Thursday, Nov. 5, around 4 p.m. ET (1 p.m. PT),** [The Hill Times reports](https://www.hilltimes.com/2026/11/04/finance-minister-champagne-tables-his-second-budget-on-nov-5/524468/). He announced the date in question period on Oct. 20, [Investment Executive reports](https://www.investmentexecutive.com/news/economy/liberals-to-table-2026-federal-budget-on-nov-5/). It's the second budget of Prime Minister Mark Carney's government.

**How to follow along:** [CPAC](https://www.cpac.ca/articles/budget-2026-en) carries the budget speech and reaction live. The documents post on [budget.canada.ca](https://budget.canada.ca/) once the budget is tabled. We'll read them and post the measures that matter for tech here, newest first.

**What Champagne has hinted at.** Speaking at the Canadian Club of Toronto this week, he said "this is a budget about entrepreneurs," and promised to simplify life for small and medium-sized businesses, [BetaKit reports](https://betakit.com/upcoming-federal-budget-will-be-all-about-entrepreneurs-finance-minister-hints/). On the SR&ED research tax credit, which was expanded last year, he said "we're going to go beyond." He gave no specifics.

**What tech and business groups have asked for** (requests, not confirmed measures), per BetaKit:

- The Canadian Federation of Independent Business wants the small business tax rate cut from 9 per cent to 6 per cent, and the income threshold for that rate raised from $500,000 to $700,000.
- Investor groups, including the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association and the Council of Canadian Innovators, have proposed letting people defer capital gains tax when they reinvest, and a tax break for investing in startups modelled on the U.S. "qualified small business stock" rule.

**The backdrop:** The Parliamentary Budget Officer now expects a $63.3-billion deficit this fiscal year, [Investment Executive reports](https://www.investmentexecutive.com/news/economy/liberals-to-table-2026-federal-budget-on-nov-5/).

**What we'll look for:** SR&ED and other innovation tax changes; any new money for AI computing (Ottawa already has an [$890-million program for a public AI supercomputer](https://betakit.com/canada-to-join-european-supercomputer-program-collaborate-on-tech-priorities/) and a [stake of up to $1.6 billion in Cohere](https://thecircuit.ca/posts/2026-10-30-ottawa-cohere-stake/)); telecom and affordability measures following [Ottawa's telecom roadmap](https://thecircuit.ca/posts/2026-10-29-telecom-competition-roadmap/); and anything on startups, venture capital, cybersecurity or digital services taxes.