Budget 2023 prioritizes pocketbook help and clean economy, deficit projected at $40.1B
CTV
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care, and the clean economy.
The federal deficit is projected to be $40.1 billion in 2023-24, nearly $10 billion more than forecast in last fall's economic snapshot. A slowing economy and new Liberal spending are behind this increase.
From affordability measures for low-income Canadians and funding the next phase of a national dental care program, to boutique tax tinkering, and a suite of green technology incentives, Tuesday's federal budget outlines the Liberals' plan to "do big things" while staring down a potential recession.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's budget outlines how the Liberals plan to spend nearly $70 billion more between now and 2027-28—with $59.5 billion rolling out over the next five years— while offsetting this with close to $25 billion in cuts and savings.
The budget— titled “A Made-in-Canada Plan”— shows that the federal deficit is projected to be $43 billion this fiscal year, and Freeland is no longer forecasting that federal coffers could be back in the black by 2027-28.
Instead, the deficit is set to gradually decline over the next five years but still sit at $14 billion in 2027-28.
"Budget 2023 comes at an important moment for our country—and at an important moment for the world. In the near-term, we must contend with a slowing global economy, elevated interest rates around the world, and inflation that is still too high," Freeland writes in the foreword to the budget, of which all 255 pages were tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
