The federal government’s 2026 Spring Economic Statement, Canada Strong for All, reinforces a clear shift in direction first signalled in Budget 2025: toward growth, investment, and economic capacity. (Click to read the Chamber’s Statement on Budget 2025).
At a high level, the Statement combines near-term affordability measures with large-scale, longer-term investments intended to strengthen productivity, workforce capacity, and domestic industry.
Several headline measures anchor the plan:
- $25 billion Canada Strong Fund to co-invest with private capital in strategic projects and firms.
- $511.9 billion in capital commitments, including a $51 billion Build Communities Strong Fund and more than $125 billion across 15 major projects.
- A significant skilled trades push (80,000–100,000 workers by 2030–31), supported by $3.4 billion over five years in apprenticeship supports and incentives.
- Defence and industrial policy investments, including $103.8 million over five years for a new Defence Investment Agency.
- Early-stage strategies in AI and food security, focused on adoption, domestic capacity, and resilience.
- Business succession reform: the $10 million capital gains exemption for Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs) is now permanent.
- Charitable sector modernization: consultations in 2026–27 to update the tax and regulatory framework for charities in line with G7 practices.
From a fiscal standpoint, the government projects a $66.9 billion deficit in 2025–26, lower than previously forecast, alongside $7.75 billion in savings over three years. The Chamber continues to be concerned about our national deficit but welcomes investment in strategic areas like major projects, infrastructure and defence.
What This Means Locally, and Where the Abbotsford Chamber Is Focused
For Abbotsford, the priority is ensuring national commitments translate into real projects, capital flows, and economic activity in the Fraser Valley.
Transportation Infrastructure: Highway 1 Expansion
With over $500 billion in planned capital investment and a focus on trade corridors, there is a clear federal opening to advance projects like Highway 1 expansion through the Fraser Valley, which is currently on hold until a long term flood mitigation plan is determined.
This corridor is a national trade route, critical to goods movement between the Lower Mainland, the Interior, and the U.S.
Flood Mitigation: Sumas Prairie
The Statement’s emphasis on resilience aligns directly with the need to complete flood mitigation infrastructure following the 2021 disaster.
This is about protecting the most productive agricultural land in Canada along with key transportation and trade corridors that connect British Columbia to the Port of Metro Vancouver and customers in global markets across the Asia Pacific.
What the Chamber is watching: Whether flood mitigation is treated as economic protection infrastructure- and delivered with the urgency required to reduce ongoing risk exposure.
Defence and Industrial Capacity: YXX Cluster
New defence investments signal a shift toward building domestic industrial capability.
Around Abbotsford International Airport (YXX), a growing aerospace and MRO cluster is well-positioned to contribute.
What the Chamber is watching: Whether procurement and investment decisions create opportunity in regions like the Fraser Valley.
Food Security: From Sector to National Imperative
The federal commitment to a National Food Security Strategy, alongside up to $7 billion in planned agri-food investment by 2030, aligns with advocacy advanced through the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Abbotsford championed elevating food security to national security status in October 2025 and this was passed by the full Chamber network.
For the Fraser Valley, food production is core economic infrastructure.
What the Chamber is watching:Whether policy moves beyond strategy into timely approvals, investment deployment, and regulatory efficiency to strengthen domestic production capacity.
Workforce and Succession
The combination of multi-billion-dollar trades investment and the now-permanent EOT capital gains exemption signals a more complete approach to business continuity.
What the Chamber is watching:
- Whether workforce investments translate into real labour availability locally
- Uptake of employee ownership as a succession pathway -particularly as many business owners approach transition
Non-Profits and Charities: Modernization Ahead
For Abbotsford’s non-profit sector, planned 2026–27 consultations on modernizing the charitable framework create an opportunity for meaningful reform.
What the Chamber is watching:
- Alignment with G7 best practices
- Reduced regulatory burden and improved flexibility
- Early engagement opportunities for local organizations
Bottom Line
The Spring Economic Statement reinforces a shift toward growth, investment, and economic capacity, supported by significant fiscal commitments.
But the competitive reality is clear: capital will move to where projects are approved, built, and scaled quickly.
For Abbotsford, the focus is execution:
- Turning federal capital into Highway 1 expansion and flood mitigation infrastructure
- Securing a role for local industry in defence and industrial investment flows
- Advancing food security as a national economic and security priority
- Supporting workforce development, business succession, and a modernized non-profit sector
To continue these discussions with business leaders from across the region, join us on May 21st in Abbotsford for the second Fraser Valley Economic Summit.
