Trudeau to Detail Second-Term Fiscal Starting Point on Monday

(Bloomberg) -- Justin Trudeau’s finance chief will deliver a budget update Monday that will outline the fiscal framework the Canadian prime minister’s government will be using in its second term.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau confirmed the release in a statement on Twitter. The fiscal update will be released in the morning on Dec. 16 just before 11 a.m. Ottawa time, and will simply be an update of economic and fiscal numbers, a person familiar with the plan said. It comes after an election campaign in October that saw the Liberals retain power, but lose their majority in parliament.

The parliamentary budget watchdog estimated after the election that the government’s deficits will rise to C$21.1 billion ($16 billion) this year and C$23.3 billion in 2020, from C$14 billion in 2018, even before taking into account the new measures Trudeau promised during the campaign. The Liberals had said they anticipate the budget deficit will jump to about C$27 billion in 2020 once new tax cuts and spending are introduced, exceeding 1% of gross domestic product for the first time since 2012.

One measure that may be incorporated into Monday’s budget update will be the Liberal government’s latest personal income tax cut. Morneau introduced a motion in parliament this week to indicate his intentions to move ahead with the cut, which gradually raises the basic income tax deduction.

To contact the reporter on this story: Theophilos Argitis in Ottawa at targitis@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Theophilos Argitis at targitis@bloomberg.net, Stephen Wicary, Erik Hertzberg

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