Finance Minister Bill Morneau released new forecasts suggesting Canada will run deficits in the vicinity of C$30 billion ($22 billion) this year, as the slump in crude prices takes a bigger bite out of the nation’s finances than previously thought.
A fiscal update Monday -- released a month before Morneau’s first budget is due -- showed Canada’s deficit in the year that begins April 1 is on pace to be C$18.4 billion, even before the bulk of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s C$11 billion in spending promises and any other stimulus measures are accounted for. A deficit of that magnitude -- totaling about 1.5 percent of output -- would be the largest since 2010.
