Kevin Page

The Liberal government's fall economic statement acknowledges the cost-of-living crisis weighing on Canadians but offers few new measures to tackle it, while pledging to keep deficits in check.

The federal government failed to spend tens of billions of dollars in the last fiscal year on promised programs and services, including new military equipment, affordable housing and support for veterans.

The federal government’s newly announced inflation relief for lower-income Canadians through the GST rebate stacks up as a better policy than some of the cash payments issued by provinces, economists say.

With the cost of living rising at the fastest pace in decades, Canadians struggling to put food on the table are turning to community organizations for help.

The federal government may find itself with billions more in spending room on the back of soaring oil prices that experts say could lower the deficit, or give the Liberals space to fund a bevy of campaign pledges.

The Trudeau Liberals' fiscal update this week put a cost to all the emergency COVID-19 aid the federal treasury will dole out. It delivered some shocks: a gigantic deficit and a projection that the federal debt will top $1 trillion.

"(Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) thinks today's budget will distract Canadians from all of this. He is using the budget — a critical element of any government's agenda — as nothing more than a political prop in an unprecedented cover-up." — Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer, on March 19, 2019.

When the Liberals release the last budget of their mandate on Tuesday, March 19, 2019, Canadians can expect to hear arguments that years of deficit spending have put the economy on stronger footing.

The federal budget won't be balanced until at least 2040, the Finance Department said on Friday, December 21, 2018, providing fresh figures for parties looking to position themselves with voters as the best stewards of the public purse.

While they have slightly differing views on the landmark tax cuts just adopted in the U.S., and their potential effect on Canada, some of the country's leading fiscal-policy experts agree on one thing.

Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau suggests he has no plans to provide a timetable for returning Ottawa's books to balance — even with a scorching economy.

A National Observer exclusive.