Projected deficits in fall economic statement 'modest,' allows government to 'invest in Canadians': Freeland
CTV
Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland insists her government’s latest fall economic statement is in line with its 2015 election promise to run 'modest' deficits and 'invest in Canadians.'
Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland insists her government’s latest fall economic statement is in line with its 2015 election promise to run “modest” deficits and “invest in Canadians.”
Freeland unveiled her government’s fall economic statement on Tuesday, which includes billions of dollars in new spending, targeted policy measures aimed at increasing Canada’s housing supply, and a projected deficit of $40 billion in 2023-24.
In an interview airing Sunday, Freeland was pressed by CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos on the modest deficit promise her party made eight years ago. The finance minister told Kapelos the promise was a “guiding impulse and philosophy” in this latest fiscal outlook.
During the 2015 federal election campaign, the Liberals pledged not to run deficits over $10 billion, and said they would return to balance by 2019.
“The future prime minister outlined this plan of investing in Canada and Canadians, investing in infrastructure, and running modest deficits,” Freeland said. “And that's a plan that I think you see carried through in this fall economic statement.”
“That's what we believe in, that's what we're doing,” she added.
She added the “key” is “to invest in Canadians” — namely in housing, childcare, and “this industrial transformation” — in a “fiscally responsible way.”
