Fall Economic Statement lockup starts at 1:45 p.m. ET, officials say

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has resigned from cabinet, the day she is set to present the fall economic statement.

Officials confirm the Fall Economic Statement lockup, which was set to begin at 10 a.m., will now start at 1:45 p.m.

In a resignation letter, she says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered her another role in cabinet Friday, but that the only “honest and viable path” is to leave cabinet.

Freeland says for the past several weeks that she and the prime minister have found themselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada.

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Laura Osman a parliamentary reporter for the Logic spoke on the Evan Bray Show about the mood at Parliament after Freeland’s resignation.

“Everyone here is reeling, and I’m standing outside the Cabinet Room, which is where the Prime Minister is meeting with all his remaining ministers, and they’re all coming to grips with this news because not only did Chrystia Freeland, the finance minister, resign, she resigned with a rather salty letter that she released publicly full of criticism of the Prime Minister, which is a huge tone shift.”

Osman said Freeland’s announcement caught everyone off guard, just hours before the fall economic statement.

“I was headed into the lock-up. I found the form saying that I would keep everything secret. I’m taking my seat and getting a coffee. And then this news broke and suddenly you had journalists fleeing the fall economic statement lock up to come back to the hill to get a reaction,” she said.

Osman said there are a lot of questions left up in the air now.

“No one knows what’s happening, including staff from the Prime Minister’s Office that we’ve spoken to. They don’t know if she’s going to be tabling this document in the house if she’s going to be giving her press conference inside the lock-up this afternoon if we’re going to be hearing from her at all,” said Osman.

“And it remains to be seen whether this fall economic stands after she has said that she doesn’t stand by it.”

Freeland says Canada faces a grave challenge with the incoming Trump administration and its threat of tariffs.

She says the government needs to take the threat seriously and that means “eschewing costly political gimmicks.”

She says she is committed to running again for her seat in the next federal election.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2024.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press

— with files from 650 CKOM’s The Evan Bray Show