Carney says economic plan ‘settling in’ after Canada’s economy shrinks

“As we do all that, the data is going to be uneven. And we see some weakness, in part because of clear decisions by the government,” he said.

“So you have these cross-currents as the economy is being fundamentally transformed. We’re going to continue to work. We are making progress but there’s more to be done.”

The prime minister pointed to positive signs in the latest economic report, including increasing business investment in machinery and equipment and household income growth outpacing inflation.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Tuesday accused Carney of not being straight with Canadians about the state of the economy.

Poilievre pointed to job losses and a rise in insolvency rates and food bank usage over the past year as signs that Canadians are worse off since Carney took office.

“They deserve a prime minister who will look them in the eye and admit that there is a recession,” he told reporters outside the Liberal cabinet meeting.

Many economists have dismissed the recession label, arguing the recent slump doesn’t have the depth or breadth to meet that bar.

Appearing before a parliamentary committee on Monday, Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers warned MPs against putting too much stake in one economic indicator — particularly when there’s a great deal of “noise” in the data.

“Two quarters of annualized contraction in GDP does meet one definition of a recession, but simply the fact that you have to put the term ‘technical’ in front of it sort of tells you that you need to really look past that one indicator,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2026.

David Baxter and Craig Lord, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Carney says economic plan ‘settling in’ after Canada’s economy shrinks

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