OTTAWA — On a warm, sunny Wednesday morning in Toronto’s North York, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the “a” word most politicians balk at pronouncing.

Carney revealed that “austerity” was on the menu for his government’s first budget this fall while speaking to reporters before chairing a two-day cabinet retreat in Toronto.

“It’s an austerity and investment budget at the same time, and that’s possible if we are disciplined,” Carney said in French. “We can do both, and we will do both.”

“We need discipline for our spending, it’s necessary. For example, the rate of increase of federal government spending in the last decade was over seven per cent year over year. That’s faster than the rate of growth of our economy,” he added in an apparent swipe at his Liberal predecessor Justin Trudeau.

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