ADVERTISEMENT

Trudeau Plans July 8 ‘Fiscal Snapshot’ Amid Ballooning Deficit

Trudeau Plans July 8 ‘Fiscal Snapshot’ Amid Ballooning Deficit

(Bloomberg) -- Justin Trudeau’s government will deliver an update on Canadian finances next month amid emergency spending that will result in a record budget deficit.

The prime minister, speaking at a daily briefing Wednesday, announced plans to deliver a “fiscal snapshot” in the legislature on July 8. The update will only offer short-term forecasts and will detail all government spending so far on Covid-19 relief programs.

“Taken together, we’ve now unleashed the largest economic measures of our lifetime -- measures that are helping millions of people because that’s what the situation demanded,” Trudeau told reporters outside his Ottawa residence.

The snapshot will also compare Canada’s measures to how other countries have tackled the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, he said.

Trudeau’s government had planned to unveil a budget on March 30 but had to backtrack after the pandemic hit. Asked last week when he’d offer a look at the books, the prime minister described delivering a fiscal update during a global public-health crisis as “an exercise in invention and imagination.”

Canada’s parliamentary spending watchdog expects the budget deficit to mushroom to at least C$260 billion ($192 billion), the largest in the nation’s history, because of emergency programs to support those who have lost work and subsidize businesses grappling with forced shutdowns. A gap of that size would be about 12% of gross domestic product.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.