Banning crypto ATMS, saving the whales and Olympic economics: Carney’s mini-budget casts a wide fiscal net

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In its spring economic update, the federal government is investing $755 million over five years to Canadian Heritage to not only promote and increase Canadians’ access to sport, but also host world-class sporting events and build or upgrade sporting infrastructure.

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“We are making a generational investment in sport and our athletes. To increase participation. To put more Canadians on podiums. And to bring more world‑class sporting events to Canada,” reads the fiscal document.

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The total amount includes $45 million to help Canadian athletes train, complete and perform, as well as have better mental health supports, but also $660 million for national sport organizations to grow participation among children and youth nationwide.

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“We will champion our athletes so that they can do their best and play to win — whether that’s on the playground or the podium,” reads the document.

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Cracking down on fraud and extortion

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Building on the 2025 budget commitment to fight fraud and extortion, the government introduced legislation this week to establish the Financial Crimes Agency.

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It will be an independent agency, reporting to the minister of finance, with police powers and civilian leadership tasked with investigating serious and complex financial crimes such as money laundering, serious fraud, and major capital market crime.

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To get the Financial Crimes Agency up and running, the spring economic update proposes to allocate $418 million over five years, as well as additional resources to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada and the Department of Finance Canada.

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The government is also cracking down on money services businesses (MSBs) which are increasingly used by criminals to launder money, fund terrorism and defraud Canadians.

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To that end, it will enable the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) to refuse or revoke registration of MSBs, prevent the re-registration of non-compliant MSBs and increase the number of criminal record checks for them.

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The fiscal update is also proposing to ban crypto ATMs, which is deemed a primary method for scammers to defraud victims and for criminals to place their cash proceeds of crime.

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Finally, it is proposing to provide $17.9 million over four years to FINTRAC to prioritize the detection of the illicit financing that supports extortion and fentanyl trafficking in Canada.

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Build Canada Strong — with your savings

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As previously announced by Carney, the federal government will be setting up a new sovereign wealth fund — dubbed the “Canada Strong Fund” — in which Canadians will be able to invest in major infrastructure projects alongside the private sector.

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The spring economic update released Tuesday offers a few more details on the fund.

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“Build Canada Strong is about connecting Canadians to one another and ensuring that an Albertan has a stake in a project built in Newfoundland, and vice versa. It is about uniting Canadians around a shared purpose and shared success,” reads the document.

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The text of the fiscal update goes on to explain that “any Canadian who wishes to can invest some of their savings into the Canada Strong Fund.”

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The government will initially provide $25 billion over three years to seed the fund. That item is not its standalone item in the spring economic update, but it has been accounted for in billions of projected “non-budgetary transactions” made by Crown corporations.