Ottawa’s fiscal watchdog says the way the Liberal government defines certain types of spending in its new budget framework can be inconsistent and contradictory.

The Liberals under Prime Minister Mark Carney introduced a new budget framework that divides spending between day-to-day operating expenses and measures to stimulate capital investment.

A report released Thursday by the office of parliamentary budget officer Annette Ryan attempts to track Ottawa’s path to balancing the operating side of the budget — a key fiscal anchor set by the Carney government.

The budget office says the government is improving fiscal transparency in some ways by offering explanations of how certain tax incentives, loan guarantees and other measures — the kind that normally would fall outside traditional accounting definitions of capital spending — are helping to meet its fiscal anchor.

The Canadian Press has more. 

A national organization that supports more than 100 services centres for Indigenous people across Canada is asking Ottawa $25 million over the next five years in Budget 2026 to expand its role in delivering federal programs, including employment and skills initiatives for young Indigenous people.

“Every year, nearly one million Indigenous people turn to Friendship Centres for support, our programs help train people for jobs, get jobs and stay in them,” Jennifer Rankin, CEO of the National Association of Friendship Centers said Wednesday.

The funding would help the network build partnerships with federal departments on employment and skills training, housing and infrastructure, youth development and emergency preparedness.

The request comes six months after Ottawa committed $168 million over five years to stabilize the network, after its core funding provided through the Urban Programming for Indigenous People ended in March.

Sydney Ko reports. 

Federal Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin defended her government’s push to make permanent the Building Canada Act’s special regulatory powers, which originally came with a sunset clause barring Ottawa from designating national interest projects past 2030.

The Building Canada Strong Act, tabled this week, proposes to remove the sunset clause that was negotiated in by the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois in June 2025.

Asked by iPolitics whether she’d be comfortable with a future government — a Conservative minority, for instance — benefiting from those powers, Dabrusin didn’t directly address the scenario, instead pointing to the urgency she says Canadians feel around building energy security and sovereignty.

“People feel very strongly that there’s a lot of work ahead of us,” she said. “We’re talking about Churchill Falls; that is not a fast project to complete.”

Aya Dufour has more. 

In Other Headlines

Internationally

Elsewhere, Xi Jinping has called for extensive cooperation with Washington to avoid the “Thucydides trap” that could put the US and China on a military collision course amid rising tensions over artificial intelligence, trade and Taiwan.

At the start of his summit meeting with Donald Trump in the White House, the Chinese president laid out terms for a mutual understanding that he said could steer the two competing superpowers away from future military conflict and on to a road of mutual gain.

Rather than confrontation, conditions for “achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again go hand in hand” should be the goal Xi said, citing Trump’s political catchphrase.

“We should strengthen communication. China and the United States are different in national conditions, but through candid, in-depth and continued dialog, our two countries can understand each other better, seek common ground while shelving differences, and build up mutual trust,” said Xi, with Trump looking on.

“We should coexist in peace,” he said. “China and the United States, as two major countries, stand to gain from cooperation and will both lose in confrontation. Our two militaries should maintain regular dialog and improve mechanisms for crisis communication and prevention.”

The Guardian has more. 

White House reporters for MS NOW, CNN and Politico are back in the White House as of midday Thursday, after days of being barred entry because President Trump said the news outlets “purposely write negative news.”

In a ruling issued shortly after midnight, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly for the District of Columbia granted a 14-day temporary restraining order to CNN, MS NOW and Politico, which had press credentials of their journalists covering the White House revoked on Saturday.

Yet early on Thursday, the news outlets said some of their journalists were denied entry to the White House. They asked the court for an immediate hearing. Kelly gave the Trump administration until 12:30 p.m. ET to respond.

In a declaration filed shortly before that deadline, Micah Stopperich, the director of White House press operations, says her team began to work on restoring access after receiving word at 7:10 a.m. The job took just under three hours to complete.

Read more from NPR. 

In Other International Headlines

The Kicker

Fans of Kraft Dinner’s mac and cheese can now look forward to ingesting it in a can.

KD released a limited edition “KD x Solly’s Cream Soda” in Canada this month, that will allegedly taste like a combination of sweet cream soda with a hint of cheese.

Shoppers who are dying to get a taste can find it at Walmart.

Giving credit where it’s due, this news was sent to this newsletter writer by former iPolitics reporter Davis Legree.

Also big congratulations to Legree’s nuptials! Consider this shoutout as my personal wedding gift to you.

Read more about this cheese soda here.