{"id":71036,"date":"2016-02-21T01:19:12","date_gmt":"2016-02-21T06:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=71036"},"modified":"2016-02-21T01:19:12","modified_gmt":"2016-02-21T06:19:12","slug":"how-big-will-it-be-finance-minister-to-give-canadians-sense-of-federal-deficit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/02\/21\/how-big-will-it-be-finance-minister-to-give-canadians-sense-of-federal-deficit\/","title":{"rendered":"How big will it be? Finance minister to give Canadians sense of federal deficit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OTTAWA \u2013 The federal finance minister is poised to provide Canadians a better sense of the size of the budgetary deficit for the coming year.<\/p>\n

A government official says Bill Morneau will deliver a presentation Monday to update the country on the government\u2019s fiscal and economic situation.<\/p>\n

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity because the details were not yet public, says Morneau will avoid providing a hard number on the shortfall because the upcoming budget has yet to be completed.<\/p>\n

Morneau recently heard downgraded forecasts from private-sector economists whose projections are averaged to create a fiscal baseline for Ottawa’s budget, expected late next month.<\/p>\n

Morneau\u2019s announcement will come as the new Liberal government tries to find ways to fulfil big-ticket spending election promises amid tough economic conditions that are slashing billions from its bottom line.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently acknowledged that his government would no longer live up to its pledge to keep the 2016-17 deficit under $10 billion.<\/p>\n

Trudeau also raised doubts whether the Liberals would fulfill its vow balance the books within four years \u2013 a central pledge in their election platform.<\/p>\n

The government has instead been emphasizing its other promise to continue lowering Canada\u2019s debt-to-GDP ratio during its mandate. Experts have said Ottawa could run annual deficits as high as $25 billion and still shrink that ratio.<\/p>\n

Conservative finance critic Lisa Raitt has accused the Liberals of breaking election promises.<\/p>\n

Raitt asked Morneau on Thursday in the House of Commons if a $30-billion shortfall would remain within his fiscal plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe aim to get to a balanced budget over time, recognizing that our economy makes that more challenging,\u201d Morneau said in response to Raitt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat remains a very important goal for this government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morneau has also reiterated the Liberals\u2019 intention to prioritize spending measures to boost the economy and create jobs. To generate growth, the government is banking on increased infrastructure investments, tax-bracket changes to provide relief on the middle-income bracket and changes to child benefits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2013 The federal finance minister is poised to provide Canadians a better sense of the size of the budgetary …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":44828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[9636],"class_list":["post-71036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-cp","mauthors-andy-blatchford","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}