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The Federal Government of Canada will release an economic statement on Monday (November 30), as well as deliver a revised look at the federal financial situation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced yesterday (Nov 23) that parliamentarians and Canadians will receive an updated look at Canada’s spending and deficit situation on November 30, 2020.
The minister said in the House of Commons that the Federal Government has a strong financial position in this crisis, which allows us to provide unprecedented support to Canadians during this pandemic. The government’s plan will continue to support Canadians through the pandemic and ensure that economy will boom, inclusive and sustainable after the pandemic.
The government hopes that the economic statement (first promised in the throne speech in September) will include the latest information on the cost of COVID-19 assistance, which has been compared with wartime expenditures. It is expected to increase as the second wave of the virus hit the country hard and prompting more shutdowns.
The level of detail for this update remains to be seen, but it will not be a full budget, with that promised to be released sometime in 2021.
The last fiscal snapshot of the government was released in July and the budget deficit for 2020 was predicted to be CA$ 343.2 billion. This deficit forecast was significantly higher than the pre-pandemic economic update released in December 2019, which fixed the deficit at CA$ 2.81 billion.
Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre said in a statement that the Liberal Party had gone for a long time without a federal budget and the country needs a plan that will make our business stand up again to hire the necessary workers, rebuild our workforce and unleash the power of our 20 million outstanding Canadian workers.
This will be Chrystia Freeland’s first fiscal update and economic statement since she replaced Mr. Bill Morneau as Canada’s first Minister of Finance in August.
