Federal Deficit Expected to Exceed $20B by Budget Time
OTTAWA: The Finance Department says Ottawa will run a deficit of at least $18.4 billion next year, nearly five times its $3.9-billion projection just three months ago.
That means the shortfall could well exceed $20 billion once the Liberal government’s big-ticket election promises are factored in.
The government is also predicting a $15.5-billion deficit in 2017-18 more than six times its estimate last fall of $2.4 billion.
The estimates released today do not include billions of dollars in Liberal spending commitments that are expected in the upcoming federal budget, such as infrastructure investments.