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Liberal budget: $62-billion deficit, more money for the CBC and a new federal online regulator Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne tabled Budget 2026 in Ottawa. It's called "Masters of our destiny." I'm going to tell you what's in it, what it costs you, and what the government decided not to say. A $62 billion deficit. Interest payments that will soon be bigger than the health transfer. Another $300 million for the CBC. A new federal regulator for what you're allowed to post online. And a one-time deal to turn up to 200,000 temporary residents into permanent ones. The deficit and the debt The deficit this year is $62.3 billion. Next year, $62.5 billion. By 2030-31 it's still $52.9 billion. There is no year in this plan where Ottawa spends less than it takes in. Interest on the debt is $60 billion this year. By 2030-31 it's $85.5 billion. The Canada Health Transfer, the money Ottawa sends the provinces for hospitals, will be $67.7 billion that year. So within five years, we'll pay the bondholders almost $18 billion more than we pay for health care. Immigration The target is 380,000 new permanent residents a year for 2027, 2028 and 2029. But there's something on top of that number. Up to 200,000 temporary residents already in the country get a one-time path to permanent residency by the end of 2027. That's outside the 380,000 target. It costs $302 million. Call it what it is: a regularization program. The online regulator The budget gives Canadian Heritage $176 million to stand up a new agency called the Digital Safety and Data Protection Commission. Its job is to enforce Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act. That bill puts a "duty to act responsibly" on platforms, and on AI chatbots, to "assess and mitigate risks" in seven categories of harmful content, and to label anything made by AI. The budget doesn't list the seven categories. You'll remember what happened the last time Ottawa tried this. I was part of a protest the government decided was dangerous enough to freeze bank accounts over. I have a pretty good idea of how elastic the word "harmful" can be. I should say how I'm able to do this. I'm still under house arrest waiting on my Emergencies Act appeal. I can work because Rebel News hired me as a journalist, and that job exists because people chipped in to The Tamara Project. If you want more reports like this one, that's where to go. Media subsidies Keep in mind who's paying the people covering this budget. The CBC gets another $300 million over two years, "to strengthen its capacity to meet the evolving needs of Canadians." Add it up and the line called "Supporting Canadian stories, journalism, and media" is over a billion dollars, with most of it landing this year. Rebel News doesn't qualify for a dollar of it, because Ottawa's panel decides who counts as a "qualified" newsroom and we're not on the list. But when you watch a reporter tell you this budget is "responsible," it's fair to ask whether their paycheque is in it. The government calls it "Masters of our destiny." You can decide who the masters are. Support @LichTamara's reporting: TheTamaraProject.com.