Five things to know about the Liberal government’s 2017-2018 budget

OTTAWA (NEWS 1130) — Five things to know about the Liberals government’s 2017-18 budget:

1. There’s no plan to balance it. The Liberal government continues to push for increased spending — though not a lot of it in this document — as the main driver for economic growth in Canada and as such, they don’t have a plan for when they’ll wrestle down the deficit.

2.That deficit is shrinking, though. It stands now at $23 billion, down from $25.1 billion in the last fiscal update, and while it’s projected to reach $25.5 billion for 2017-18 — not including a $3 billion contingency fund — it declines to $15.8 billion in 2021-22.

3.The cupboard is bare, for now. The budget’s light on spending and long on vision — most of the new money it proposes doesn’t kick in until the next fiscal year, co-incidentally the same one that will precede the next federal election.

4. Donald who? While the budget makes mention of the fact Canada’s economy could be sideswiped by which direction the U.S. goes, there are no measures explicitly in the budget to respond to some of the signs U.S. president Donald Trump has already been giving on where he will go, like dramatically lowered taxes and promoting Buy American policies.

5. It looks at old programs in a new way. For the first time in Canadian history, the budget document also includes a “gender statement” that takes a look at how some of its measures will impact women and girls, described as the first step towards a deeper gender-based analysis in next year’s budget.

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