Uncovering what’s become of Canada’s deficit, implementing a bonus for workers returning to their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic and boosting funding for the auditor general are among the Official Opposition’s priorities ahead of Wednesday’s fiscal snapshot.
Uncovering what’s become of Canada’s deficit, implementing a bonus for workers returning to their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic and boosting funding for the country’s auditor general are among the Official Opposition’s top priorities ahead of Wednesday’s fiscal snapshot.
“We need the government to tell us next week, ‘How big is the deficit, how big is the debt?'” Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre said during a news conference Sunday. “Stop hiding the mess.”
The Trudeau government will update the country on the state of Ottawa’s finances on July 8, after a plan to present the federal budget was sidelined in March as the novel coronavirus continued to spread.
The snapshot will include a new official deficit estimate, a figure the parliamentary budget officer says could hit $256 billion due to spending on emergency aid and a historic drop in economic output.
“I think the essential frame from my standpoint [is] we took on the debt so Canadians didn’t have to,” Finance Minister Bill Morneau said in an interview last week. “We were in the position to take on the investments required because we had the capacity and the ability to deliver at scale that would only be possible for the federal government.”
The Conservatives and members of other opposition parties have been critical of the Liberal government’s decision to release a snapsho